1558-1603. ELIZABETH. So with the "English Catholic Church." It having been proved that positive abuses existed in the " English Catholic Church," its clerical synods in convocation, its lay synods in parliament, or the crown, by power placed in its hands by the joint authority of those synods, made, during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth, certain enactments to correct such abuses, but in all other respects the rights of the "English Catholic Church" were, essentially, left unimpaired, and the "English Catholic Church" never lost its original identity. That sect commonly called "Roman Catho lics," are a mere body of dissenters from the English Catholic church. The Church of Rome of the prebe identified with sent day, cannot the Church of England previous to the Reformation. That sect which is now commonly called "Roman Catholics" are nothing but a mere body of dissenters from the " English Catholic Church," and have never, constitutionally speaking, been arbitrarily deprived of a vested right. However numerous and respectable, they did and could dissent only in their individual and private, and not in any corporate or collective capacity, from the authoritative regulations and changes made by the legally-constituted powers, to whom alone belonged the right to decide on matters of doctrine and practice. 28 The Church of Rome at the present day, cannot be identified with the Church of England previous to the Reformation: the Roman Catholic bishops in England and Scotland are bishops of foreign sees, and neither they, nor those who have been schismatically consecrated for the sees in Ireland, which at the time were canonically filled, can trace any descent from the bishops of the ancient churches in these kingdoms: the now bishops of the Church of England, being the only representatives by episcopal succession of the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches; and the strongest illustration of this position is, that 28 The Irish bishops almost unanimously consented, in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, to remove the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff."Leland's Hist. Ireland, book iv. c. 1. The consequence was, that for a length of time there were scarcely any popish bishops in Ireland. M'Gavran, titular Archbishop of Armagh, was sent over from Spain. In 1621, we are informed by O'Sullivan's Hist. Cath. Iberniæ, "that there were two popish bishops in Ireland, and two others who resided in Spain. These persons were ordained in foreign countries, and could not trace their ordinations to the ancient Irish church."-Palmer's Antiq. Engl. Ritual, vol. ii. 252, note. In Ireland, the only representative, by episcopal succession, of the church which St. Patrick founded, which for seven hundred years (i. e., till the year 1152,) rejected the Roman jurisdiction, and which, after four hundred years' experience of that tyranny, recovered its ancient freedom, is the reformed Catholic church at this day established there. 1558-1603. Severity exercised against the Roman Catholics on account of their treasonable the votaries of the Roman Catholic religion are distinguished ELIZABETH. by the adoption of a new creed, which the " English Catholic Church" at no one period of her existence ever recognised 29. If any severity was unjustly exercised against the Roman Catholic dissenters, it was in consequence of their secession from the "English Catholic Church,” and of their treasonable, though they might be conscientious, efforts to subvert those ecclesiastical institutions, which had been established by the legislature, conceiving the Bishop of Rome to be more powerful than the king, lords, and commons, united with the clerical synods in convocation, a principle subversive of the common and statute law, and as utterly inconsistent with national freedom and prosperity, as it is with common sense, and with the decrees of the ancient councils. 29 The errors which had been put forth by some of the councils in the middle ages, had never been before intruded into the public professions of the Christian church. With regard to the most remarkable of those errors, those propounded by the second Nicene Council (A. D. 786), touching image-worship, and by the fourth Lateran (1215), which made a belief in transubstantiation necessary to salvation, it is worthy of remark that both these met with the most determined opposition from the English church. The English bishops joined with those of France and Germany, at the Council of Francfort (794), in rejecting and condemning the decrees of the second Nicene Council; and the doctrine of transubstantiation was so strenuously attacked by the Anglo-Saxon writers, that the learned Mr. Johnson, who edited the Anglo-Saxon Canons, does not hesitate to say that the Homilies of Elfric are more strongly opposed to that doctrine than the present Homilies of the Church of England. And though for a time the church in this kingdom did afterwards entertain that error, and for three hundred years acquiesced in the [pretended] decrees of the Council of Lateran, which first made a belief in it necessary to salvation, yet it was with great and ill-concealed reluctance. So much so, that Tonstal, Bishop of Durham, who twice suffered deprivation for his adherence to the Bishop of Rome, and must therefore be admitted to be an impartial witness, speaking of our Lord's presence in the eucharist, says thus, “De modo quo id fiat, satius erat curiosum quemque relinquere suæ conjectura, sicut liberum fuit ante Concilium Lateranum."-De Eucharistiâ, lib. i. 46. The Church of England has nearly, if not quite, fulfilled the wish of the good bishop. For though in her Articles an opinion is plainly expressed against the doctrine, salvation is not denied, nor communion refused to those who hold it, of which a practical proof was afforded, when, for the first fifteen years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, almost the entire body of those in this kingdom who adhered to the Roman doctrine, conformed to our worship, and communicated in our churches. This and the preceding note have been extracted from a Letter to the Members of Parliament, by the Hon. and Rev. A. P. Perceval, Lond. 1834; and the publications of that reverend author, on the Roman controversy; clearly demonstrate, that the Schism which interrupts the communion between the Churches of Rome and England, is wholly the work of the former, whose schismatical conduct has even brought into question her claim to the appellation of "Catholic." efforts to subvert the English Catholic church. CHAPTER VII. THE HOUSE OF STUART. A.D. 1603-1702. JAMES L.-CHARLES I.-CHARLES II-JAMES II.-WILLIAM AND MARY. SECTION I. JAMES I., March 24, A. D. 1603,-March 27, a. D. 1625. 1. Title of James I. to the Crown. 3. Prerogative of the Crown. 4. Taxes cannot be levied without Consent of Parliament. 5. Privilege of Parliament. 6. The Reformation. 1. Title of James I. to the Crown. AFTER the power of alienation, as well as the increase of commerce, had thrown the balance of property into the hands of the commons, the situation of affairs and the dispositions of men became susceptible of a more regular plan of liberty; and the laws were not supported singly by the authority of the sovereign. An acquaintance with the remains of antiquity, had excited a passion for a limited constitution, and begat an emulation of those virtues, which the Greek and Roman authors had recommended. The severe government of Elizabeth had confined this rising spirit; but when a new and a foreign family succeeded to the throne, with a prince less dreaded and less beloved, the principles of liberty appeared in the nation, and the disputes which arose during the dynasty of the Stuarts, had no less an object than to determine and establish the political constitution of England; and the agitation produced by so important a controversy, could not fail to rouse the passions of men, to call forth and display their most eminent characters, and to develope those combinations and occurrences, which tended to facilitate or to obstruct, the improvement of civil society. In every government, the magistrate must either possess a large revenue and a military force, or enjoy some discretionary in order to execute the laws and support his own powers, The House of Stuart were not supported either by money or by force of arms, and therefore were extremely jealous of |