Art. III.-THE ENGLISH REFORMATION.

1. The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. By GILBERT BURNET, D. D., late Lord Bishop of Salisbury. With a copious Index. Revised and corrected, with additional Notes, and a Preface calculated to remove certain Difficulties attending the Perusal of this important History. By the Rev. E. NARES, D. D., Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. In three volumes. New-York: D. Appleton & Company, 1843. 2. History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. By J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNÉ, D. D., President of the Theological School of Geneva, etc. Translated by H. WHITE, B. A. Vol. V. New-York: Carter & Brothers, 1857.

WE place before our readers the title-pages of these great historical works, not for the purpose of review or criticism, but as authorities from which the principal part of the facts referred to in this paper are derived, and constituting the basis of an important argument. The reputation of Bishop Burnet's history has long been established, and criticism bestowed upon it now would appear to be presumptuous. The merit of D'Aubigné as an historian is universally conceded, and is not now to be argued. The question is not, whether these celebrated authors are to be regarded as high authority, but, what do they teach us in relation to the great change in the faith and religious life of the Church of England effected by what is called THE REFORMATION?

The real character and importance of the Reformation in England has been a matter of controversy for three centuries, and yet the positions of the combatants are maintained, without the concession of a hair's breadth of ground on either side. Roman Catholics maintain that it was a mere political revolution, achieved by Henry VIII. out of resentment because the pope refused to grant him a divorce from Catharine of Aragon; while, upon the other hand, Protestants maintain that it was a great work of God, consisting in an awakening of the consciences of the people, through the instrumentality of the Holy Scriptures and the preaching of the Word. We propose in this paper a brief examination of this question.

Early in the seventh century, the Church of Rome established her dominion in the British Isles. This was a step toward the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over the whole Church, which was claimed by Hildebrand in the eleventh century. Collisions between the priests and the civil authorities, from time to time, occasioned no little trouble to the ruling sovereigns; but the wily emis

saries of the pope, by working upon their superstitious fears, and by varied arts, so managed as to hold the ascendency down to the twelfth century. The famous Thomas à Becket, both a soldier and a priest, was, by the pope, made Archbishop of Canterbury, having been previously appointed Chancellor of England by Henry II. He was as ambitious as he was cunning, and as wicked as he was ambitious. He knew Henry well, and took every advantage of his weakness. When he received the appointment of Archbishop of Canterbury, he said to the king, with a smile, "Now, sire, when I shall have to choose between God's favor and yours, remember it is yours that I shall sacrifice."

Popery had now asserted its right to "the two swords," and the meaning of the archbishop was, that he would obey the king when his commands did not clash with those of the pope, but no further! We have an archbishop in this country who vaunts the patriotism of Roman Catholics, upon the ground that they hold that God is to be obeyed first, and the civil power next. And we have simpletons enough among us who believe this to be orthodox doctrine. They seem to forget that, to every Romanist, the voice of the pope is the voice of God, and that the mass of the people only know what the pope requires, from what they are told by their ghostly guides. Popery is now what it was in the days Hildebrand, and Archbishop Hughes is just as good a citizen as Becket was a subject. Their notions of the relation of the civil power to the spiritual are of precisely the same class.

Becket assumed great pomp, and lived in the greatest extravagance. With him, the pope and the Church were all, while the king and the state were nothing. Henry became weary of this arrogant and unmanageable ecclesiastic, and incautiously dropped an expression which was understood to imply a wish for his assassination; and, accordingly, four knights proceeded to his cathedral church, and murdered him at the foot of the altar. He was canonized, and, if we may believe the stories of the Romish priests, a multitude of miracles have been wrought at his tomb. The public mind was filled with horror at the wickedness of the murder, and Henry, becoming alarmed, gave up the perpetrators of the crime to the demands of justice, and humbled himself before his holiness the pope. John, the successor of Henry, laid down his crown at the pope's feet, and made over the kingdom to him, May 15, 1215.

The barons were not so pliable. They did not quite relish the idea of being bartered away to a foreign power, like serfs of the soil. They drew their swords, being followed by their knights and servants, and two thousand soldiers, and proceeded to occupy London.

On the 5th of June, 1215, the king signed "Magna Charta," which secured the rights and liberties of the people of England. The pope pronounced the Great Charter "null and void." John was between two fires, and was driven almost to madness. He gnashed his teeth and rolled his eyes; he tore sticks from the hedge, and ground them like a maniac. In this mighty struggle between the pope and priests on the one hand, and the barons and people on the other, the principles of the Reformation began to be evolved. The outrageous exactions of the pope, the insolence of the priests, and the scandalous corruptions of the monasteries, disgusted the people. The barons exclaimed: "Alas, poor country! wretched England! And thou, O pope, a curse light upon thee!" "Is it the pope's business," asked they, "to regulate temporal matters? By what right do vile usurers and foul simoniacs domineer over our country, and excommunicate the whole world?"

The conflict proceeded. Protests against the exorbitant claims of the pope and clergy were entered; and the pope sometimes made concessions, and at other times made resistance; sometimes cursed and at other times blessed; but kept his eye upon the mark at which Rome always aims-the spiritual and temporal supremacy over the whole world.

Amid these conflicts a mighty champion for the truth arose. John Wiclif was born in 1324. He attended the lectures of the famous Bradwardine, at Morton College. During "the plague" in 1348, he became much awakened, and passed sleepless nights in his cell, groaning and praying to God for light and comfort. He was led to the only source of relief by the instructions of the Holy Scriptures, which he now incessantly studied. He was elected warden of Baliol College in 1361, and of Canterbury in 1365. In his lectures and sermons he now began to teach the doctrines of faith, and to reprove the licentiousness of the monks.

Wiclif was a profound thinker and an eloquent preacher. His public lectures and sermons were crowded. He accused the clergy with having banished the Scriptures, and demanded that they should be restored to the Church. Papal arrogance had now reached its height in England, and had stirred the mind and heart of the nation. to their utmost depths. Wiclif was as able a politician as he was a divine; and he came forward boldly in defense of the rights of the crown against the aggressions of Rome. His arguments were repeated in Parliament. The war was between the demands of the pope for tribute and the claims of the crown to independence; between the canon law and the Holy Scriptures. The reformer finally fully bared his breast to the storm, and declared that "the

Gospel is the only source of religion. The Roman pontiff is a mere cut-purse, and far from having the right to reprimand the whole world, he may be lawfully reproved by his inferiors, and even by laymen." The ecclesiastics were much scandalized at this bold stand, and the transgressor was arraigned before the convocation of St. Paul's cathedral. He was defended by Lord Percy and the Duke of Lancaster, for purely political considerations. A tumult followed between the noble advocates of the reformer and the ecclesiastical functionaries, and the cause exploded.

Wiclif pressed the battle, and the friars sought, by all possible means, to entangle and ruin him. But God was on his side; he was a chosen instrument for the accomplishment of a great work, and He who can make the wrath of men to praise him, and restrain the remainder, took care of his servant, turning the counsels of his enemies into foolishness.

In 1379 Wiclif was attacked by a dangerous disease, and his enemies hoped that his end had come. They now conceived the project of procuring from him a recantation upon his dying bed. Four learned doctors, together with as many senators, were dispatched to his sick-room. They first expressed great sympathy for him in his suffering, and then reminding him of the grievous wrongs he had heaped upon the holy orders, they expressed a hope that he would improve his last moments in making reparation. He listened to the whole tale in silence, and then, calling upon his servants to raise his head, he fixed his eyes upon the company and said: "I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars." The consternation of the doctors was overwhelming; they retired in the utmost confusion, and Wiclif soon recovered, and renewed the fight.

The Roman hierarchy was now rendered powerless in England by a feud between two rival popes. In 1378, Gregory XI. died, and the conclave elected an Italian, who assumed the name of Urban VI. He was an abandoned tyrant, and soon drove the cardinals from Rome. They assembled at Naples, and pronounced the election a nullity, and proceeded to elect another. Robert, Count of Geneva, was elected, who took the name of Clement VII. The former set up his throne in Rome, and the latter at Avignon; but which really occupied the chair of St. Peter, is a question not yet settled.

This great schism so fully occupied the mind of the Romish Church, that there was neither time nor strength left her to look after heresies or heretics. Wiclif improved the occasion to lay deadly blows upon the apostate Church. "Trust we in the help of Christ," he exclaimed, "for he hath begun already to help us graciously, in

that he hath cloven the head of antichrist, and made the two parts fight against each other; for it cannot be doubtful, that the sin of the popes, which hath so long continued, hath brought in this division."

The pulpit and pen were now employed by the reformer with tremendous effect against the great apostasy. As yet, however, he had but assailed the outposts and van-guards of the enemy. He next proceeded to storm the citadel. He commenced a translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue. He was a thorough Latin scholar, but not well acquainted with Hebrew and Greek. The text from which he made his translation was the Latin Vulgate. He Но had labored upon this work with the greatest industry for ten or fifteen years, and it was finally completed in 1580. There were no printing-presses then in existence, but every copy had to be written out with a pen, with the same manual labor which it cost to execute the original copy. Although the labor of making one copy was immense, copies were greatly multiplied, and the word of God was read by thousands, not excepting the laboring classes, both males and females.

The work was denounced as heretical, and highly offensive to God, being an effort to lay bare and expose to the jests of infidels the secrets of God's counsels. A controversy followed, in which Master John Wiclif met his opponents with plain common-sense arguments, deferring nothing to mere human authority. The Romanists urged that "to open the Bible to all, was, in effect, to set aside the office and to supplant the authority of those who were appointed to teach its doctrines to the people." To this the reformer replied: "According to the faith which the apostle teaches, all Christians must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be answerable to him for all the goods wherewith he has intrusted them. It is, therefore, necessary that all the faithful should know these goods, and the use of them; for an answer by prelate or attorney will not then avail, but every one must then answer in his own person." Here the Romish assumption that God has committed to priests the business of reading the Scriptures, and doling them out to the people according to their own notions, whims, and caprices, is met by the plain fact that God had made every man responsible for reading and understanding the Scriptures for himself. No learned Protestant, in these glorious days of evangelical light and liberty, can reason more conclusively.

The circulation of the Scriptures in English was a terrible blow to the papacy; it was the explosion of a magazine under the very chair of his holiness. The fact that copies of Wiclif's Bible were