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ENGLAND, THE CHURCH OF
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See also:ENGLAND, THE See also: Among these was See also:Ninian, who preached to the See also:southern Picts, and about 400 built a church of See also: Its monastic settlements or See also:schools were many and large, and were the abodes of learning. Bishops dwelt in them and were reverenced for their See also:office, but each was subject to the direction of the See also: Augustine and his See also:band landed probably at Ebbsfleet in 597. They were well received by IEthelberht, who was converted and baptized. On the 16th of See also:November Augustine was consecrated by the See also:archbishop of Arles to be the archbishop of the English, and by See also:Christmas had baptized ic,000 Kentish men. Thus the fathers of the English Church were Pope Gregory and St Augustine. Augustine restored a church of the Roman times at Canterbury to be the church of his see. The mission was reinforced from Rome; and Gregory sent directions for the See also:rule of the See also:infant church. There were to be two archbishops, at London and York; London, however, was not fully Christianized for some years, and the primatial see remained at Canterbury. Augustine held two conferences with British bishops; he bade them give up their See also:peculiar usages, conform to the Roman ritual, and join him in evangelizing the English. His haughtiness is said to have offended them; they refused, and the English Church owes nothing to its British predecessor. The mission prospered, and bishops were consecrated for See also:Rochester, and for London for the See also:East See also:Saxons. After Augustine and i thelberht died a See also:short religious reaction took See also:place in Kent, and the East Saxons apostatized. In 627 See also:Edwin, king of See also:Northumbria, who had married a daughter of fEthelberht, was converted and baptized with his nobles by See also:Paulinus, who became the first bishop of York. As Edwin's kingdom extended from the See also:Humber to the Forth and included the See also:Trent valley, while he exercised superiority over all the other English kingdoms, except Kent, his See also:conversion promised well for the church, but he was slain and his kingdom overrun by See also:Penda, the See also:heathen king of See also:Mercia, the central part of England. Penda's victories endangered the cause of See also:Christianity. The Roman mission was dying out. Kent and East Anglia, which was evangelized by See also:Felix, a Burgundian bishop sent from Canterbury, were settled in the faith. Though See also:Bernicia, the northern part of Northumbria, was little affected by the gospel, and after Edwin's death heathenism became dominant in his kingdom, Christianity did not See also:die out in Northumbria. The East Saxons had heard the gospel, and in 634 the conversion of the See also:West Saxons was begun by Birinus, an See also:Italian missionary. Central England and the See also:South Saxons, however, were wholly untouched by Christianity. The work of the See also:Romans was taken up by Scotic missionaries. See also:Oswald, under whom the Northumbrian See also:power revived, had lived as an See also:exile among the Scots, and asked them for a bishop to See also:teach his people. See also:Aidan was sent to him by the monks of Iona in 635, and fixed his see in Lindisfarne, or See also:Holy See also:Island, where he founded a monastery. Saintly, zealous and supported by Oswald's See also:influence, he brought Northumbria generally to accept the gospel. The conversion of the See also:Middle Angles and Mercians, and the reconversion of the East Saxons, were also achieved by Scots or by disciples of the Scotic mission. After Aidan's death in 651 the differences between the Roman and Scotic usages, and specially that concerning the date of Easter, led to See also:bitter feelings, were inconvenient in practice, and must have hindered the church in its warfare against heathenism. See also:Oswio, who reigned over both the Northumbrian kingdoms, was, like his See also:brother Oswald, a See also:disciple of the Scots, his son and his See also:queen, the daughter of Edwin, held to the Roman usages, and these usages were maintained by See also:Wilfrid, who on his return from Rome in 658 was appointed abbot of See also:Ripon. By Oswio's command a See also:conference between the two parties was held at the present See also:Whitby in 664. Oswio decided in favour of the Roman usages. This was the end of the Scotic The British church. mission. The Scots left Lindisfarne, and their disciples generally adopted the Roman usages. The Scots were admirable missionaries, holy and self-devoted, and See also:building partly on Roman See also:foundations and elsewhere breaking new ground, they and their English disciples, as Ceadda (St See also:Chad), bishop of the Mercians, and See also:Cuthbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, who were by no means inferior to their teachers, almost completed the conversion of the See also:country. But they practised an excessive See also:asceticism and were See also:apt to abandon their work in See also:order to live as hermits. Great as were the benefits which the English derived from their teaching, its cessation was not altogether a loss, for the church was passing beyond the See also:stage of mission teaching and needed organization, and that it could not have received from the Scots. Its organization like its See also:foundation came from Rome. An archbishop-designate who was sent to Rome for See also:consecration organtza- having died there, Pope Vitalian in 668 consecrated tion on the See also:Theodore of See also:Tarsus as archbishop of Canterbury. The English Scots had no diocesan See also:system, and the English Church. bishoprics were vast in extent, followed the lines of the kingdoms and varied with their fortunes. The church had no system of government nor means of legislation. Theodore united it in obedience to himself, instituted national synods and sub-divided the over-large bishoprics. At his death, in 69o, the English dominions were divided into fourteen dioceses. Wilfrid, who had become bishop of Northumbria, resisted the See also:division of his See also:diocese and appealed to the pope. He was imprisoned by the Northumbrian king and was exiled. While in exile he converted the South Saxons, and their conversion led to that of the Isle of See also:Wight, then subject to them, in 686, which completed the evangelization of the English. After See also:long strife Wilfrid, who was supported by Rome, regained a part of his former diocese. Theodore also gave the church learning by establishing a school at Canterbury, where many gained knowledge of the Scriptures, of Latin and See also:Greek, and other religious and secular subjects. In the See also:north learning was promoted by See also:Benedict Biscop in the See also:sister monasteries which he founded at Wearmouth and See also:Jarrow. There See also:Bede (q.v.) received the learning which he imparted to others. In the See also:year of Bede's death, 735, one of his disciples, See also:Ecgbert, bishop of York, became the first archbishop of York, Gregory III. giving him the See also:gallium, a vestment which conferred archiepiscopal authority. He established a school or university at York, to which scholars came from the See also:continent. His work as a teacher was carried on by See also:Alcuin, who later brought learning to the See also:court and Frankish dominions of See also:Charlemagne. The infant church, following the example of the Irish Scots showed much missionary zeal, and English missionaries founded an organized church in Frisia and laboured on the See also:lower See also:Rhine; two who attempted to preach in the old Saxon land were martyred. Most famous of all, Winfrid, or St See also:Boniface, the apostle- of See also:Germany, preached to the See also:Frisians, Hessians and Thuringians, founded bishoprics and monasteries, became the first archbishop of See also:Mainz, and in 754 was martyred in Frisia. He had many English helpers, some became bishops, and some were ladies, as See also:Thecla, See also:abbess of See also:Kitzingen, and Lioba, abbess of Bischofsheim. After his death, Willehad laboured in Frisia, and later, at the bidding of Charlemagne, among the Saxons, and became the first bishop of See also:Bremen. See also:Religion, learning, arts, such as transcription and See also:illumination, flourished in English monasteries. Yet heathen customs and beliefs lingered on among the people, and in Bede's See also:time there were many pseudo-monasteries where men and See also:women made See also:monasticism a cloak for idleness and See also:vice. In the latter part of the 8th century Mercia became the predominant kingdom under See also:Offa, and he determined to have an archbishop of his own. By his contrivance two legates from See also:Adrian I. held a council at See also:Chelsea in 787 in which See also:Lichfield was declared an archbishopric, and seven of the twelve See also:suffragan bishoprics of Canterbury were apportioned to it. In 802, however, See also:Leo III. restored Canterbury to its rights and the Lichfield archbishopric was abolished. The rise of Wessex to power seems to have been aided by a See also:good understanding between Ecgbert and the church, and his successors employed bishops as their ministers. 'See also:Ethelred, who was specially under ecclesiastical influence, went on a pilgrimageto Rome, and before his departure made large grants for pious uses. His donation, though hot the origin of See also:tithes in England, illustrates the See also:idea of the sacredness of Later the tenth of income on which See also:laws enforcing the Angie- See also:payment of tithes were founded. His See also:pilgrimage Saxon was probably undertaken in the See also:hope of averting times. the attacks of the See also:pagan Danes. Their invasions See also:fell heavily on the church; priests were slaughtered and churches sacked and burnt. Learning disappeared in Northumbria, and things were little better in the south. Bishops fought and fell in See also:battle, the clergy lived as laymen, the monasteries were held by married canons, heathen superstitions and immorality prevailed among the laity. Besides bringing the Danish settlers in East Anglia to profess Christianity in 878, See also:Alfred set himself to improve the religious and intellectual See also:condition of his own people (see ALFRED). The See also:gradual reconquest of middle and northern England by his successors was accompanied by the conversion of the Danish See also:population. A revival of religion was effected by churchmen inspired by the reformed monasticism of See also:France and See also:Flanders, by See also:Ode, See also:arch-bishop of Canterbury, Oswald, archbishop of York, and See also:Dunstan (see DUNSTAN), who introduced from abroad the strict life of the hew Benedictinism. King See also:Edgar promoted the monastic reform, and by his authority Bishop 'Ethelwold of See also:Winchester turned canons out of the monasteries and `put monks in their place. Dunstan sought to reform the church by ecclesiastical and secular legislation, forbidding immorality among laymen, insisting on the duties of the clergy, and compelling the payment of tithes and other church dues. After Edgar's death an See also:anti-monastic See also:movement, chiefly in Mercia, nearly ended in See also:civil See also:war. In this strife, which was connected with politics, the victory on the whole See also:lay with the monks' party, and in many See also:cathedral churches the chapters remained monastic. The renewed See also:energy of the church was manifested by See also:councils, canonical legislation and books of sermons. In the homilies of Abbot See also:iElfric, written for Archbishop Sigeric, stress is laid on the purely spiritual presence of See also:Christ in the See also:Eucharist, but his words do not indicate, as some have believed, that the English Church was not in See also:accord with Rome. The ecclesiastical revival was short-lived. Renewed Danish invasions, in the course of which Archbishop See also:Alphege was martyred in rot 2, and a decline in national character, injuriously affected the church and, though in the reign of Canute it was outwardly prosperous, spirituality and learning decreased. Bishoprics and abbacies were rewards of service to the king, the bishops were worldly-minded, See also:plurality was frequent, and simony not unknown. See also:Edward the See also:Confessor promoted See also:foreign ecclesiastics; the connexion with Rome was strengthened, and in to62 the first legates since the days of Offa were sent to England by See also: See also:Forman Conqueror's relations with Rome ensured a reform; for the papacy was See also:instinct with the Cluniac spirit. In 1070 papal legates were received and held a council by which Stigand was deposed. See also:Lanfranc, abbot of Bec, was appointed arch-bishop of Canterbury and worked harmoniously with the king in bringing the English Church up to the level of the church in Normandy. Many native bishops and abbots were deposed, and the Norman prelates who succeeded them were generally of good character, strict disciplinarians, and men of grander ideas. A council of 1075 decreed the removal of bishops' See also:sees from villages to towns, as on the continent; the see of See also:Sherborne, for example, was removed to Old Sarum, and that of Selsey to See also:Chichester, and many churches statelier than of old were built it[ the Norman See also:style which the Confessor had already adopted for his church at See also:Westminster. In another council priests and deacons were thenceforward forbidden to marry. William and Lanfranc also worked on Hildebrandine lines in separating ecclesiastical from civil administration. Ecclesiastical affairs were regulated in church councils held at the same time as the king's councils. Bishops and archdeacons were no longer to exercise their spiritual See also:jurisdiction in secular courts, as had been the See also:custom, but in ecclesiastical courts and according to See also:canon law. The king, however, ruled church as well as state; Gregory granted him See also:control over episcopal elections, he invested bishops with the See also:crozier and they held their temporalities of him, and he allowed no councils to meet and no business to be done without his See also:licence. Gregory claimed See also:homage from him; but while the king promised the payment of See also:Peter's pence and such obedience as his English predecessors had rendered, he refused homage; he allowed no papal letters to enter the kingdom without his leave, and when an anti-pope was set up, he and Lanfranc treated the question as to which pope should be acknowledged in England as one to be decided by the See also:crown. The Conquest brought the church into closer connexion with Rome and gave it a share in the religious and intellectual life of the continent; it stimulated and purified English monasticism, and it led to the organization of the church as a See also:body with legislative and administrative See also:powers distinct from those of the state. The relations established by the Conqueror between the crown, the church and the pope, its head and supreme See also:judge, worked well as long as the king and the See also:primate were agreed, but were so complex that trouble necessarily arose when they disagreed. William See also:Rufus tried to feudalize the church, to bring its officers and lands under feudal law; he kept bishoprics and abbacies vacant and confiscated their revenues. He quarrelled with See also:Anselm (q.v.) who succeeded Lanfranc. Anselm while at Rome heard the See also:investiture of prelates by laymen denounced, and he maintained the papal See also:decree against See also: See also:Stephen obtained the recognition of his See also:title from See also:Innocent II., and was upheld by the church until he violently attacked three bishops who had been Henry's ministers. The clergy then transferred their See also:allegiance to See also:Matilda. His later See also:quarrel with the papacy, then under the influence of St See also:Bernard, added to his embarrassments and strengthened the Angevin cause. During Stephen's reign the church See also:grew more powerful than was for the good either of the state or itself. Its courts en- croached on the See also:sphere of the lay courts; and further The claimed exclusive criminal jurisdiction over all clerks Angevin In whether in holy or See also:minor orders, with the result that criminous clerks, though degraded by a spiritual court, escaped temporal See also:punishment. Henry II., • finding ecclesiastical privileges an obstacle to administrative reform, demanded that the bishops should agree to observe the See also:ancient customs of the realm. These customs were, he asserted, expressed in certain constitutions to which he required their assent at a council at See also:Clarendon in 1164. In spirit they generally maintained the rights of the crown as they existed under the Conqueror. One provided that clerks convicted of temporal See also:crime in a spiritual court and degraded should be sentenced by a lay court and punished as laymen. Archbishop See also:Becket (see BECKET) agreed, repented and refused his assent. The king tried to ruin him by unjust demands; he appealed to Rome and fled to France. A long quarrel ensued, and in 1170 Henry was forced to be reconciled to Becket. The archbishop's See also:murder consequent on the king's hasty words shocked Christendom, and Henry did See also:penance publicly. By agreement with the pope he renounced the Constitutions, but the encroachments of the church courts were slightly checked, and the king's decisive influence on episcopal elections and some other advantages were secured. The church in Wales had become one with the English Church by the voluntary submission of its bishops to the see of Canter-See also:bury in 1192 and later. The Irish Church remained distinct, though the conquest of Ireland, which was sanctioned by the English pope Adrian IV. (See also:Nicholas Breakspear), brought it into the same relations with the crown as the English Church and into conformity with it. Under the guidance of ecclesiastics employed as royal ministers, the church supported the crown until, in 1206, Innocent III. refused to confirm the See also:election of a bishop nominated by King See also: Langton guided the barons in their demands on the king which were expressed in Magna Carta. The first clause provided, as charters of Henry I. and Stephen had already provided, that the English Church should be " free," adding that it should have freedom of election, which John had promised in 1214. As John's suzerain, Innocent annulled the See also:charter, suspended Langton, and excommunicated the barons in arms against the king. On John's death, See also:Gualo, legate of See also:Honorius III., with the help of the See also:earl See also:marshal, secured the See also:throne for Henry III., and he and his successor Pandulf, as representatives of the See also:young king's suzerain, largely directed English affairs until 1221, when Pandulf's departure restored Langton to his rightful position as head in England of the church. Reforms in discipline and clerical work were inculcated by provincial legislation, and two legates, See also:Otho in 1237 and Ottoboni in 1268, promulgated in councils constitutions which were a fundamental part of the canon law in England. Religious life was quickened by the coming of the friars (see FRIARS). Parochial organization was strengthened by the institution of vicars in benefices held by religious bodies, which was regulated and enforced by the bishops. It was a time of intellectual activity, in character rather See also:cosmopolitan than national. English clerks studied See also:philosophy and See also:theology at See also:Paris or law at See also:Bologna; some remained abroad and were famous as scholars, others like Archbishops Langton, and See also:Edmund Rich, and Bishop See also:Grosseteste returned to be rulers of the church, and others like See also:Roger See also: Gregory IX., and still more Innocent IV., sorely in need of See also:money to prosecute their struggle with the imperial See also:house, laid grievous taxes on the English clergy, supported the king in making heavy demands upon them, and violated the rights of patrons by appointing to benefices by provisions " often in favour of foreigners. Churchmen, and prominently Grosseteste, the learned and holy bishop of Lincoln, while
recognizing the pope as the divinely appointed source of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, were driven to resist papal orders which they held to be contrary to apostolic precepts. Their remonstrances were seldom effectual, and the state of the national church was noted by the Provisions of Oxford in 1258 as part of the See also:general misgovernment which the baronial opposition sought to remedy. The See also:alliance between the crown and the papacy in this reign diminished the liberties of the church.
Edward I., who was a strong king, checked an See also:attempt to magnify the spiritual authority by the See also:writ Circumspecte agatis, which defined the sphere of the ecclesiastical courts, put a See also:restraint on religious endowments by the See also:Statute of See also:Mortmain, and desiring that every See also:estate in the realm should have a share in public burdens and counsels, caused the beneficed clergy to be summoned to send proctors to See also:parliament. The clergy preferred to make their grants in their own convocations, and so lost the position offered to them. For some years clerical See also:taxation by the crown was carried on with the good-will of the papacy; it was not oppressive for unbeneficed clergy and incomes below ten marks were exempt, and in theory the clergy were celibate. Papal demands, however, were additional burdens. In 1296 Boniface VIII., by his See also:bull Clericis laicos, forbade the clergy to See also: With that exception the king's dealings with the church were statesmanlike. He employed clerical ministers and paid them by church preferments, but his nominations to bishoprics did not always receive papal confirmation which had become recognized as essential. His weak son Edward II. yielded readily to papal demands. The See also:majority of the bishops of the reign, and specially those engaged in politics, were unworthy men; religion was at a See also:low ebb; plurality and non-See also:residence were common. By the constitution Execrabilis John XXII. ordered that all See also:cures held in plurality See also:save one should be vacated, and, which was not so well, " reserved " all benefices so vacated for his own See also:appointment. As the residence of the popes at See also:Avignon from 1308 to 1377 brought them under See also:French influence, Englishmen during the war with France were specially displeased that large sums should be. See also:drawn from the kingdom for them and that they should exercise patronage there. In the reign of Edward III. the popes, though appointing to bishoprics by See also:provision, did not give them to foreigners, but they appointed foreigners, enemies of England, to lesser preferments, deaneries and prebends. In 1351 the Statute of Provisors declared provisions unlawful. Capitular elections, however, remained See also:mere forms; the king nominated, and the popes provided, and took See also:advantage of their claim to appoint to sees vacant by See also:translation. Papal interference in suits concerning temporalities was checked by a law of 1353 (the first statute of See also:Praemunire), which made punishable by See also:outlawry and See also:forfeiture the carrying before a foreign tribunal of causes cognizable by English courts. This measure was extended in 1365, and in 1393 by the great statute of Praemunire. Indignant at the law of 1365, See also:Urban V. demanded payment of the tribute promised by John, which was then See also:thirty-three years in arrear, but parliament repudiated the claim. The See also:Black Death disorganized the church by thinning the ranks of the clergy, who did their See also:duty manfully during the See also:plague. In the diocese of See also:Norwich, for example, Soo parishes lost their incumbents in 1349, 83 of them twice over (Jessopp). Large though insufficient See also:numbers were instituted to benefices and unfit persons received holy orders. The value of livings decreased and many lay vacant. Some incumbents deserted their parishes to take stipendiary work in towns or secularemployments, and unbeneficed clergy demanded higher stipends. Greediness infected the church in common with society at large. Yet See also:Chaucer's ideal parish See also:priest must have represented a See also:familiar type, so that we may believe that much good work was here and there unobtrusively done by the clergy. Prominent among abuses were the sale of pardons, and the extortions of the ecclesiastical courts; their decrees were enforced by See also:excommunication, and on a writ issued to the See also:sheriff an excommunicated See also:person would be imprisoned until he satisfied the demands of the church. The state needed money and attacks were made in parliament on the See also:wealth of the church. Already, in 1340, Edward III., who quarrelled with Archbishop See also:Stratford on political grounds, had appointed lay ministers, and in 1371 William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, and other clerical ministers were turned out of office and succeeded by laymen. A political crisis in 1376 was followed by a struggle between the bishops and John of Gaunt, duke of See also:Lancaster, the head of the anticlerical party, who allied himself with John Wycliffe (q.v.). He was unpopular, and when the bishops cited Wycliffe before them in St See also:Paul's, the duke's conduct provoked a See also:riot and the proceedings ended abruptly. Wycliffe held that the church was corrupted by wealth; that only those in See also:grace had a right to God's gifts, and that temporal power belonged only to laymen and not to popes nor priests. Later he attacked the papacy itself, which in 1378 was distracted by the great schism; by 138o he condemned pilgrimages, See also:secret See also:confession and masses for the dead. While holding the-presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he denied a See also:change of substance in the elements, arguing that accidents or qualities, such as form and See also:colour, could not exist without substance. He taught that Holy Scripture was the only source of religious truth, to the exclusion of church authority and tradition, and he and his followers made the first complete English version of the See also:Bible. His opinions were spread by the poor priests whom he sent out to preach and by his English tracts. That his teaching had any See also:direct effect on the insurrection of 1381, though commonly believed, appears to be an unfounded idea; many priests were concerned in the rising, and specially the mendicant orders, Wycliffe's bitter enemies, but the motives of the insurrection were essentially secular (See also:Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381). The reaction which followed extended to religion, and Wycliffe's doctrines were condemned by a church council in 1382. Nevertheless he died in peace. He had many disciples, especially in Oxford and in See also:industrial centres. The See also:Lollards, as his followers were called, had supporters in parliament and among people of high See also:rank in the court of See also:Richard II., and the king's See also:marriage to See also:Anne of Bohemia brought about the importation of Wycliffe's writings into Bohemia, where they had a strong influence on the religious movement led by Hus. At first the bishops were not inclined to persecute, and the earlier Lollards mostly recanted under pressure, but their number increased. With the See also:accession of the Lancastrian house the crown allied itself with the church, and the bishops adopted a repressive policy towards the Lollards. By the canon law obstinate heretics were to be burnt by the secular power, and though England had hitherto been almost free from heresy, one or two burnings had taken place in accordance with that law. In 1401 a statute, De heretico comburendo, ordered that heretics convicted in a spiritual court should be committed to the secular See also:arm and publicly burned, and, while this statute was pending, one Sawtre was burned as a relapsed heretic. Henry V. was zealous for orthodoxy and the persecution of Lollards increased; in 1414 See also:Sir John See also:Oldcastle, See also:Lord See also:Cobham, who had been condemned as a heretic, escaped and made an insurrection; he was taken in 1417 and hanged and burned. Lollardism was connected with an insurrection in 1431; it then ceased to have any political importance, but it kept its hold in certain towns and districts on the lower classes; many Lollards were forced to recant and others suffered martyrdom. The church was in an unsatisfactory state. As regards the papacy, the crown generally maintained the position taken up in the previous century, but its policy was fitful, and the custom of allowing bishops who were made cardinals to retain their sees 13th and 14th centuries. The 15th century. strengthened papal influence. The bishops were largely engaged in secular business; there was much plurality, and cathedral and collegiate churches were frequently left to inferior officers whose lives were unclerical. The clergy were numerous and drawn from all classes, and humble birth did not debar a See also:man from attaining the highest positions in the church. Candidates for holy orders were still examined, but clerical See also:education seems to have declined. See also:Preaching was rare, partly from neglectfulness and partly because, in 1401, in order to prevent the spread of heresy, priests were forbidden to preach without a licence. While the marriage of the clergy was checked, irregular and temporary connexions were lightly condoned. Discipline generally was lax, and exhortations against See also: Lutheranism affected England chiefly through the surreptitious importation of See also:Tyndale's New Testament and heretical books. In 1521 Henry VIII. wrote a book against See also:Luther in which he maintained the papal authority, and was rewarded by Leo X. with the title of Defender of the Faith. Henry, however, whose will was to himself as the oracles of God, finding that the pope opposed his intended See also:divorce from See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon, deter-See also:mined to allow no supremacy in his realm save his own. He carried out his ecclesiastical policy by See also:parliamentary help. Parliament was packed, and was skilfully managed; and he had on his See also:side the popular impatience of ecclesiastical abuses, a new feeling of national See also:pride which would See also:brook no foreign interference, the old desire of the laity to lighten their own burdens by the wealth of the church, and a growing inclination to question or reject sacerdotal authority. He used these advantages to forward his policy, and when the met with opposition, enforced his will as a See also:despot. The parliament of 1529 lasted until 1536; it See also:broke the bonds of Rome, established royal supremacy over the English Church, and effected a redistribution of national wealth at the expense of the spirituality. It began by acts abolishing ecclesiastical exactions, such as excessive mortuaries and fees for See also:probate, and by prohibiting pluralities except in stated cases, application to Rome for licence to evade the See also:act being made penal. Henry having crushed his See also:minister See also:Cardinal See also:Wolsey, archbishop of York, declared the whole body of the clergy involved in a praemunire by their submission to Wolsey's legatine authority, and ordered the convocation to See also:purchase See also:pardon by a large payment, and by acknowledging him as " See also:Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church and Clergy." After much debate, the See also:acknowledgment was made in 1531, with the qualification " so far as the law of Christ allows." A " supplication "against clerical jurisdiction and legislation by convocation was obtained from the See also:Commons in 1532, and Henry received from convocation the submission of the clergy," surrendering its legislative power except on royal licence, and consenting to a revision of the canon law by commissioners to be appointed by the king. A See also:bill for conditionally withholding the payment of See also:annates, or first-fruits, to Rome was passed, and Henry took advantage of the fear of the Roman court lest it should lose these payments, to obtain without the usual fees bulls promoting See also:Cranmer to the see of Canterbury in 1533, and thus was enabled to gain his divorce. Cranmer pronounced his marriage to Catherine null, and declared him lawfully married to Anne See also:Boleyn. Clement VII. retorted by excommunicating the king, but for that Henry cared not. Appeals to Rome were forbidden by statute, and the council ordained that the pope should thenceforth only be spoken of as bishop of Rome, as not having authority in England. In 1534 the restraint of annates was confirmed by law, all payments to Rome were forbidden, and it was enacted that, on receiving royal licence to elect, cathedral chapters must elect bishops nominated by the king. The papal power was extirpated by statute, parliament at the same time declaring that neither the king nor kingdom would vary from the " Catholic faith of Christendom." The submission of the clergy was made law. Appeals from the archbishops' courts were to be to the king in See also:chancery, and were to be heard by commissioners, whence arose the Court of Delegates as the court of final See also:appeal in ecclesiastical cases. The first-fruits and tenths of benefices were given to the king, and his title as " Supreme Head in See also:earth of the Church of England " was declared by parliament without the qualification added by convocation. See also:Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, lately See also:chancellor, the two most eminent Englishmen, were beheaded in 1535 011 an See also:accusation of attempting to deprive the king of this title, and some Carthusian monks suffered a more cruel martyrdom in the same cause. Meanwhile New Testaments were burnt, and heretics, or re-formers, forced to abjure or, remaining steadfast, were sent to the stake, for though the heresy law of Henry IV. was repealed, heresy was still punishable by death, and persecution was not See also:abated. By breaking the bonds of Rome Henry did not give the church freedom; he substituted a single despotism for the dual authority which pope and king had previously exercised over it. In 1535 See also:Cromwell, the king's See also:vicar-general, began a visitation of the monasteries. The reports (comperla) of his commissioners having been delivered to the king and communicated to parliament in 1536, parliament declared the smaller monasteries corrupt, and granted the king all of less value than 200 a year. A See also:rebellion in See also:Lincolnshire and another in the north, the formidable Pilgrimage of Grace, followed. The suppression of the greater houses was effected gradually, surrenders were obtained by pressure, and three abbots who were reluctant to give up the possessions of their convents for See also:confiscation were hanged. Monastic shrines and treasuries were sacked and the spoil sent to the king, to whom parliament granted all the houses, their lands and possessions. Of the enormous wealth thus gained Henry spent a part on national See also:defence, a little on the foundation of the bishoprics of Westminster, dissolved in 155o, See also:Bristol, See also:Chester, See also:Gloucester, Oxford and See also:Peterborough, and gave the lands to men either useful to or favoured by himself, or sold them to rich purchasers. In 1536 he dictated the belief and ceremonial of the church by issuing Ten Articles which were subscribed by con-vocation. This first formulary of the English Church as See also:separate from Rome did not contravene Catholic doctrine, though it showed the influence of Lutheran See also:models. Another exposition of See also:Anglican doctrine was made in the Institution of a Christian Man or " Bishops' book," in some respects more likely to satisfy those attached to the tenets of Rome, in others, as in the distinct repudiation of See also:purgatory and the See also:declaration that salvation depended solely on the merits of Christ, showing an advance. It was published in 1537 with Henry's sanction but not by authority. In that year licence was granted for the sale of a translation of the Bible, and in x 538 another version called See also:Matthew's Bible, was ordered to be kept in all churches (see BIBL). Pilgrimages were suppressed and images used for worship destroyed. Denial of the king's supremacy, denial of the See also:corporal presence in the Eucharist, and insults to Catholic See also:rites were alike punished by cruel death. The publication abroad of the king's excommunication rendered an assertion of orthodoxy advisable for political reasons, and in 1539 came the Act of the Six Articles attaching extreme penalties to deviations from Catholic doctrines. The backward See also:swing of the pendulum continued; Cromwell was beheaded and three reforming preachers were burnt in 1540. Prosecutions for heresy under the act were fitful: four gospellers were burnt in London in 1546, of whom the celebrated Anne See also:Askew was one. Cranmer, how-ever, did not lose the king's favour. A fresh attempt to define doctrine was made in the Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man, the " King's Book," published by authority in 1543, which, while repudiating the pope, was a declaration of Catholic orthodoxy. A Primer, or private prayer-book, of which parts were in English, as the See also:litany composed by Cranmer, and virtually the same as at present, was issued in 1546, and further liturgical change seemed probable when Henry died in 1547. Henry, while changing many things in the church, would not allow any deviation in essentials from the religion of Catholic Europe, which was not then so dogmatically defined as it was later by the council of Trent. Edward VI. was a child, and the Protector See also:Somerset and the council favoured further changes, which were carried out with Cranmer's help. They issued a book of Homilies and a set of injunctions which were enforced by a royal visitation. Pictures and much painted See also:glass were destroyed in churches, frescoed walls were whitewashed, and in 1548, the removal of all images was decreed. Parliament ordered that bishops should be appointed by letters patent and hold their courts in the king's name. An act of the last reign granting the king all chantries and See also:gilds was enlarged and enforced with cruel injustice to the poor. On the See also:petition of convocation parliament allowed the marriage of priests; and it further ordered that the laity should receive the See also:cup in communion. A communion book was issued by the council in English, the Latin See also:mass being retained for a time. Many See also:German reformers came to England, were favoured by the council, and gained influence over Cranmer. The first Book of Common Prayer was authorized by an Act of Uniformity in 1549; it retained much from old service books, but the communion office is Lutheran in character. It excited discontent, and a serious insurrection broke out in the West, the insurgents demanding the revival of the Act of the Six Articles and the withdrawal of the new service as " like a Christmas See also:game." After Somerset's fall the government rapidly pushed forward See also:reformation. A new Ordinal issued with parliamentary approval in 1550 was significant of the change in sacramental doctrine, and the four minor orders disappeared. Altars were destroyed and tables substituted. Five bishops, See also:Bonner of London, See also:Gardiner of Winchester, and See also:Heath of See also:Worcester, then already in See also:prison, and two others, were deprived; and the See also:Lady See also:Mary, who would not give up the mass, was harshly treated. The reformers were not tolerant; for a woman was burnt for Arianism in 1550 and a male Anabaptist in 1551. Under the influence of foreign reformers, who took a lower view of the Eucharist than the Lutheran divines, Cranmer soon advanced beyond the prayer-book of 1549• A second prayer-book, departing further from the old order, appeared in 1552, and without being accepted by convocation was enforced by another Act of Uniformity, and in 1553 a See also:catechism and See also:forty-two articles of religion were authorized by Edward for subscription by the clergy, though not laid before convocation. A revision of the canon law in accordance with the act for " submission of the clergy " was at last undertaken in 1551, but the only result was a document entitled Ref ormatio legum ecclesiasticarum, which never received authority. Edward died in 1553. Apart from matters of faith, the church had fared ill under a royal supremacy exercised by self-seeking nobles in the name of the boy-king. Convocation lost all authority and bishops were treated as state officials liable to deprivation for disobedience to the council. Means ofworship were diminished, and the poor were shamefully wronged by the suppression of chantries, gilds and holy days; even the few See also:sheep of the poor brethren of a gild were seized to swell a sum which from 1550 was largely diverted from public purposes to private gain. Churches were despoiled of their See also:plate; the old bishops were forced, the new more easily persuaded, to give up lands belonging to their sees, and rich men grew richer by robbing God.
When Mary succeeded her brother, the deprived bishops were restored, some reforming bishops were imprisoned, and Cranmer, who was implicated in the See also:plot on behalf of Lady Jane See also:Grey, was attainted of See also:treason. As regards doctrine, religious practices and papal supremacy, Mary was set on bringing back her realm to the position existing before her See also:father's quarrel with Rome. Her first parliament repealed the ecclesiastical legislation of Edward's reign, and convocation formally accepted See also:transubstantiation. Seven bishops were deprived in 1554, four of them as married, and about a fifth of the beneficed clergy, though some received other benefices after putting away their wives. Apparently Mary at first believed that her authority would be accepted in religious matters; but she met with opposition, partly provocative, for See also:Wyat's rebellion consequent on her intended marriage to See also: The most prominent among them in persecution was Bonner of London. The exiles for religion were received at See also:Frankfort, See also:Strassburg and See also:Zurich. At Frankfort a party among them objected to the ceremonies retained in the prayer-book, and, encouraged by See also:Calvin and by See also:Knox, who came to them from See also:Geneva, quarrelled with those who desired to keep the book unchanged. Mary died in 1558. Her reign arrested the rapid spoliation of the church and possibly prevented the See also:adoption of doctrines which would have destroyed its apostolic character; the persecution by which it was disgraced strengthened the hold of the reformed religion on the people and made another See also:acceptance of Roman supremacy for ever impossible.
See also: Meanwhile a party, soon known as Puritans, rebelled against church order; the exiles who had come under Genevan influence objecting on their return to See also:vestments and ceremonies enjoined by the prayer-book. There was much non-conformity in the church which the queen ordered the bishops to correct. Parker, though averse to violent See also:measures, insisted on obedience to his " Advertisements " of 1566, which, though not formally authorized by the queen, expressed her will, and became held as authoritative, and some of the refractory were punished. A See also:company engaged in irregular worship was discovered in London in 1567 and a few persons were imprisoned by the See also:magistrate. Active opposition to the government was stirred up by See also:Pius V., and in 1569 a rebellion in the north, where the old religion was strong, was aided by papal money and encouraged by hopes of See also:Spanish intervention. In 1570 Pius published a bull excommunicating and deposing the queen. Thenceforward recusants had to choose between See also:loyalty to the queen and loyalty to the pope. They lay under suspicion, and severe penal laws were enacted against Romish practices. About 1579 many See also:seminary priests and See also:Jesuits came over to England as missionaries; some actively engaged in treason, all were legally traitors. The country was threatened with foreign invasion, plots against the government were detected; and the queen's life was held to be endangered. The council hunted down these priests and their abettors, and many were executed, martyrs to the doctrine of the pope's power of deposition. The number put to death in this reign under the penal laws was 187. The papal policy defeated itself; a large number of the old religion while retaining their faith chose to be loyal to the queen rather than lend themselves to the designs of her enemies. From 1571 recusants can no longer be reckoned as nonconforming members of the English Church: the law recognized them as separate from it. The church's doctrine was defined in the catechism of 1570, and in the revised articles of religion which appeared as the XXXIX. Articles in 1571, and its law by a body of canons published with authority in 1576, the attempt at codification made in the Reformatio legum having been laid aside.
From 1574 the See also:Protestant Nonconformists strove to introduce See also:Presbyterianism. Cause for grievance existed in the state of
the church which had suffered from the See also:late violent The changes. Elizabeth plundered it, and laymen who fo°rnm`i ts, owned the rectories formerly held by monasteries
followed her example; bishoprics were impoverished by the queen and parish cures by her subjects, and the reform of abuses was checked by self-See also:interest. As bishops, along with some able men, Elizabeth chose others of an inferior See also:stamp who consented to the See also:plunder of their sees and whom she could use to See also:report on recusants and harry nonconformists. Separation, or Independency, began about 1578 with the followers of Robert See also: The House of Commons, in which there was a Puritan See also:element, repeatedly attempted to discuss church questions and was sharply silenced by the queen, who would not allow any interference in ecclesiastical matters. See also:Whitgift, who succeeded Grindal in 1583, though See also:kind-hearted, was strict in his administration of the law. Violent
Ix. 15attacks were made upon the bishops in the Martin Marprelate tracts printed by a secret See also:press; their author is unknown, but some who were probably connected with them were executed for See also:publishing seditious libels. Whitgift's firmness met with success. During the last years of the reign the movement towards Presbyterianism was checked and See also:nonconformity was less prominent. The church regained a measure of orderliness and vigour; its claims on allegiance were advocated by eminent divines and expounded in the stately pages of See also: R. Gardiner, about 300 clergy were deprived, though a 17th century writer (Peter See also:Heylyn) puts the number at 49 only, which W. H. See also:Frere (See also:History of the English Church, '558-1625, p. 321) thinks more credible. Conformity could still be enforced, but before long the Puritan party grew in strength partly from religious and partly from political causes. They would not admit any authority in religion that was not based on the scriptures; their opponents maintained that the church had authority to ordain ceremonies not contrary to the scriptures. In doctrine the Puritans remained faithful to the Calvinism in which most Englishmen of the See also:day had been brought up; they called the high churchmen Arminians, and asserted that they were inclined to Rome. The Commons became increasingly Puritan; they were strongly Protestant and demanded the enforcement of the laws against recusants, who suffered much, specially after the See also:Gunpowder Plot of 1605, though they were sometimes shielded by the king. The Commons regarded ecclesiastical jurisdiction with dislike, specially the Court of High Commission, which had See also:developed from the ecclesiastical commissions of Elizabeth and was hated as a means of See also:coercion based on See also:prerogative. The bishops derived their support from the king, and the church in return supported the king's claim to See also:absolutism and divine right. It suffered heavily from this alliance. As men saw the church on the side of absolutism, See also:Puritanism grew strong both among the country gentry, who were largely represented in the Commons, and among the nation at large, and the church lost ground through the king's political errors. A restoration of order and decency in worship and the introduction of more ceremonial begun in James's reign were carried on by See also:Laud (q.v.) under See also: The king, who was beheaded in 1649, might have extricated himself from his difficulties if he had consented to the overthrow of episcopacy, and may therefore be held a martyr to the church's cause. The victory of the See also:army over the parliament secured England against the tyranny of Presbyterian-ism, but did not better the condition of the episcopal clergy; the See also:toleration insisted on by the See also:Independents did not extend to " prelacy." Churchmen, however, occasionally enjoyed the ministrations of their own clergy in private houses, and though their worship was sometimes disturbed they were not seriously persecuted for, engaging in it. Non-delinquent or non-sequestrated private patronage and the See also:obligation of tithes were retained. Community of suffering and the See also:execution of Charles I. brought the royalist country gentry into sympathy with the clergy, and at the Restoration the church had the hold upon the See also:affection of the laity which it lacked under the Laudian rule. On the king's restoration the survivors of the ejected clergy quietly regained their benefices. The Presbyterians helped to The bring back the king and looked for a See also:reward. Charles Restores- II. promised them a limited episcopacy and other See also:don concessions, but his See also:plan was rejected by the Commons. period. A conference at the See also:Savoy between leading Presbyterians and churchmen in 1661 was ineffectual, and a revision of the prayer-book by convocation further discontented non-conformists. The parliament of 1661 was violently anti-Puritan, and in 1662 passed an Act of Uniformity providing that all ministers not episcopally ordained or refusing to conform should be deprived on St See also:Bartholomew's day, the 14th of See also:August following. About 2000 ministers are said to have been ejected, and in 1665 ejected ministers were forbidden to come within five See also:miles of their former cures. Though some bishops and clergy showed kindness to the ejected, churchmen generally approved of this oppressive legislation; they could not forget the wrongs inflicted on their church by the once triumphant Puritans. See also:Nonconformist worship was made punishable by See also:fine and imprisonment, and on the third offence by transportation. In 1672 Charles, who had secretly promised the French king openly to profess Roman Catholicism, issued a Declaration of See also:Indulgence which applied both to Romanists and Protestant Nonconformists, but parliament compelled him to withdraw it, and, in 1673, passed a Test Act making reception of the holy communion and a denial of transubstantiation necessary qualifications for public office. Later, when the dissenters found See also:friends among the party in parliament opposed to the crown, the church supported the king, and the doctrine of passive obedience was generally accepted by the clergy. The church was popular, and among the great preachers and theologians who adorned it in the See also:Caroline period were See also:Jeremy See also: James's attack on the church cost him his crown. Sancroft and eight bishops would not belie their belief in the doctrines of divine right and passive obedience by See also:swearing allegiance to William and Mary, and the archbishop, five bishops and over 400 clergy were deprived. period. Certain of these nonjuring bishops consecrated others and a schism ensued. The loss to the church was heavy; for among the See also:nonjurors were many men of holy lives and eminent learning, and the fact that some suffered for conscience' See also:sake seemed a reproach on the See also:rest of the clergy. After 1715 the See also:secession became unimportant. Protestantism was secured from further royal attack by the Bill of Rights; and in 1701 the Act of Succession provided that all future sovereigns should be members of the Church of England. • That the king's title rested on a parliamentary decision was destructive of the clerical theory of divine right, and encouraged Erastianism, then specially dangerous to the church; for William, a Dutch Presbyterian, gave bishoprics to men personally worthy, but more desirous of union with other Protestant bodies than jealous for the principles of their own church. A bill for union was rejected in the Commons, where the church party had a majority, though one for toleration of Protestant dissenters became law. William, anxious for concessions to dissenters, appointed a See also:committee of convocation for altering the See also:liturgy, canons and ecclesiastical courts, but the Tory party in the lower house of convocation was strong and the See also:scheme was abortive. A long controversy began between the two houses: the bishops were mostly Whigs with latitudinarian tendencies, the lower clergy Tories and high churchmen. During most of the reign convocation was suspended and the church was governed by royal injunctions, a system injurious to its welfare. It had been the See also:bulwark of the nation against Romanism under James II., and the affection of the nation enabled it to preserve its distinctive character amid dangers of an opposite kind under William III. Its religious life was active; associations for worship and the reformation of See also:manners led to more frequent services, the See also:establishment of schools for poor See also:children, and the foundation of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.) and for the See also:Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.). This activity and the discord between the two houses of convocation continued during Anne's reign. Anne was a strong church-woman, and under her the church reached its highest point of popularity and influence. Its supposed interests were used by the Tories for political ends. Hence the Occasional Conformity Act, to prevent evasion of the Test Act, and a tyrannical Schism Act, both repealed in 1718, belong rather to the history of parties than to that of the church. So, too, does the See also:case of Dr See also:Sacheverell, who was prosecuted for a violently Tory See also:sermon. His trial, in 1710, caused much excitement; mobs shouted for " High Church and Dr Sacheverell," and the lightness of his See also:sentence was hailed as a Tory victory. Queen Anne is gratefully remembered by the church for her "See also:Bounty," which gave it the first-fruits and tenths (see ANNATES and QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY). With the accession of the Hanoverian line the church entered on a period of feeble life and inaction: many church fabrics were neglected; daily services were discontinued; The 18th holy days were disregarded; Holy Communion was century. infrequent; the poor were little cared for; and though the church remained popular, the clergy were lazy and held in contempt. In accepting the See also:settlement of the crown the clergy generally sacrificed conviction to expediency, and their character suffered. Promotion largely depended on a profession of Whig principles: the church was regarded as subservient to the state; its historic position and claims were ignored, and it was treated by politicians as though its See also:principal See also:function was to support the government. This change was accelerated by the silencing of convocation. A sermon by See also:Hoadly, bishop of Bangor, impugned the existence of a visible church, and the " Bangorian controversy" which ensued threatened to end in the condemnation of his opinions by convocation, or at least by the lower house. As this would have weakened the government, convocation was prorogued, letters of business were withheld, and from 1717 until 1852 convocation, the church's constitutional See also:organ of reform, existed only in name. See also:Walpole during his long See also:ministry, from 1721 to 1942, discouraged activity in the church lest it should become troublesome to his government. Preferment was shamelessly sought after even by pious men, and was begged and bestowed on the ground of political services. In this the clergy, apart from the sacredness of clerical office, were neither better nor worse than the laity; in morality and decency they were better even at the lowest point of their decline, about the middle of the century. While the church was inactive in See also:practical work, it showed vigour in the intellectual defence of Christianity. Controversies of earlier origin with assailants of the faith were ably maintained by, among others, See also:Daniel Waterland, William Law, a nonjuror, Bishop See also: While he urged his followers to adhere to the church, he could not himself work in subordination to discipline; the Methodist organization which he founded was See also:independent of the church's system and soon drifted into separation. Nevertheless, he did much to bring about a revival of life in the church. Several clergy became his See also:allies, and some preached in Lady See also:Huntingdon's chapels before her secession. These were among the fathers of the Evangelical party: they differed from the Methodists in not forming an organization, remaining in the church, working on the parochial system, and generally holding Calvinistic doctrine, being so far nearer to See also:Whitfield than to Wesley, though Calvinism gradually ceased to be a See also:mark of the party. The Evangelicals soon grew in number, and their influence for good was extensive. They laid stress on the depravity of human nature, and on the importance of conscious conversion, giving prominence to the See also:necessity of See also:personal salvation rather than of See also:incorporation with, and abiding in, the church of the redeemed. Prominent among their early leaders after they became distinct from the Methodists were William Romaine, Henry See also:Venn and John See also:Newton. Bishop See also:Porteus of London sympathized with them, Lord Dart-mouth was a liberal See also:patron, and See also:Cowper's See also:poetry spread their doctrines in quarters where sermons might have failed to attract. Religion was also forwarded in the church by the example of See also:George III. During his reign the progress of toleration, though slow and fitful, greatly advanced both as regards Roman Catholics and Protestant dissenters. The spirit of See also:rationalism, which had been manifested earlier in attacks on See also:revelation, appeared in a movement against subscription to the Articles demanded of the clergy and others which was defeated in parliament in 1772. The alarm consequent on the French Revolution checked the progress of toleration and was temporarily fatal to free-thinking; it strengthened the position of the church, which was regarded as a bulwark of society against the spread of revolutionary doctrines;, and this caused the Evangelicals to draw off more completely from the Methodists. The church was active: the See also:Sunday-school movement, begun in 178o, flourished; the crusade against the slave-See also:trade was vigorously supported by Evangelicals; and the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.), a distinctly Evangelical organization, was founded. Excellent as were the results of the revival generally, the Evangelicals had defects which tended to weaken the church. Some characteristics of their teaching were repellent to the young; they were deficient in theological learning, and often in learning of any kind; they took a low view of the church, regarding it as the offspring of the Protestant reformation; they expounded the Bible without reference to the church's teaching, and paid little heed to the church's directions. Dissent consequently grew stronger. By the Act of Union with Ireland the Churches of England and Ireland were united from the 1st of See also:January 18os, and the continuance of the united church was declared an essential part of the union. No provision, however, was made giving the Irish clergy a place in convocation, which was evidently held unlikely to revive. The union of the churches was dissolved in 1871 by an act of 1869 for disestablishing the Irish Church. Apart from the Evangelical revival, religion was advanced in the church. In 1811 the education of the poor was provided for on church principles by the National Society; the Church Building Society was founded in 1818; and the Moe Oxford Movement. colonial episcopate was started by the establishment of bishoprics in See also:Calcutta in 1814, and in See also:Jamaica and See also:Barbados in 1824. Yet reforms were urgently needed. In 1813, out of about 1o,800 benefices, 6311 are said to have been without See also:resident incumbents (The Black Book, p. 34); the value of some great offices was enormous, while many of the parochial clergy were wretchedly poor. The See also:repeal of the Test Act, long practically inoperative, in 1828, and Catholic emancipation in 1829, mark a change in the relations of church and state; and the Reform Bill of 1832 transferred political power from a class which generally supported the church to classes in which dissent was strong. The national zeal for reform was directed towards the church, not always in a friendly spirit. Yet wholesome changes were effected by legislation: dioceses were rearranged and two new bishoprics founded at See also:Manchester and Ripon, the bishopric of Bristol, however, being suppressed; plurality and non-residence were abolished; tithes were commuted, and the Ecclesiastical Commission, which has effected reforms in respect of endowments, was permanently established in 1836. Some changes and proposals alarmed churchmen, specially as legislation for the church proceeaed from parliament, while convocation remained silenced. Latitudinarian opinions revived, and the church was regarded merely as a human institution. Among the clergy generally ritual observance was neglected and rubrical directions disobeyed. A few churchmen, including See also:Keble and See also:Newman, set themselves to revive church feeling, and Oxford became the centre of a new movement. The publication of Keble's Christian Year prepared its way, and its aims were declared in his See also:assize sermon at Oxford on " National See also:Apostasy " in 1833. Its promoters urged their views in Tracts for the Times, and were strengthened by the See also:adhesion of See also:Pusey. Hence they were nicknamed Tractarians or Puseyites. Their cardinal doctrine was that the Church of England was a part of the visible Holy Catholic Church and had unbroken connexion with the See also:primitive church; they inculcated high views of the sacraments, and emphasized points of agreement with those branches of the Catholic Church which claim apostolic succession. Their party grew in spite of the opposition of low and broad churchmen, who, specially on the publication of See also:Tract XC. by Newman in 1841, declared that its teaching was Romanizing. In 1845 Newman and several others seceded' to Rome. Newman's apostasy was a severe See also:blow to the church, though permanent injury was averted by the steadfastness of Pusey. The Oxford movement was wrecked, but its effect survived both in the new high church party and in the church at large. As a body the clergy rated more highly the responsibilities and dignity of their profession, and became more zealous in the performance of its duties and more ecclesiastically minded. High churchmen carried out rubrical directions, and after a while began to introduce changes into the performance of divine service which had not been adopted by the early leaders of tr party, were deprecated by many bishops, and excited opposition. In 1833 the supreme jurisdiction of the Court of Delegate. was transferred to the judicial committee of the privy council. Before this court came an appeal by a clerk named Gorham, whom the bishop of See also:Exeter refused to. See also:institute to a See also:benefice because he denied unconditional regeneration in See also:baptism, and in The 185o the court decided in the appellant's favour. The church decision was followed by some secessions to. Rune, "tithe and high churchmen were dissatisfied that spiritual law courts. questions should be decided by a secular court. The papal aggression " of that year, by which Pius IX. appeared to claim authority in England, roused violent popular indignation which was used against the high church party. However, it afforded an See also:argument for the revival of convocation, and, chiefly owing to the exertions of Bishop See also:Wilberforce of Oxford, convocation again met in 1852 (see CONVOCATION). Meanwhile broad church opinions were gaining ground to some extent owing to a reaction from the Oxford movement. Among the clergy the broad church party was comparatively small, but it included some men of mark. In 186o appeared Essays and Reviews, a See also:volume of essays by seven authors, of whom six were in orders. The book as a whole had a rationalistic tendency and was condemned by convocation: two of the essayists were suspended by the Court of See also:Arches, but its See also:judgment was reversed by the judicial committee. Crude attacks on the authority of the Scriptures and the position of the English Church with respect to it having been published by See also:Colenso, bishop of See also:Natal, he was deposed by his See also:metropolitan, Bishop See also: A royal commission appointed in 1867 recommended that facilities should be granted for enabling parishioners aggrieved by ritual to gain redress, and in 1870 that a revised lectionary and a shortened form of service should be provided. A new lectionary was approved by the two convocations and enacted, and convocation having received letters of business in 1872 and 1874 See also:drew up a shortened form of prayer which was also enacted, but the commission had no further direct results. Between 1867 and 1871 two decisions of the judicial committee were adverse to the ritualists, and by exciting dislike to the court among high churchmen indirectly led to an increase in ritual usages. Among those who adopted them were many self-devoted men; their practices, which they believed to be See also:incumbent on them, were condemned as illegal, yet they saw the rubrics daily disregarded with impunity by others who trod the easy path of neglect. In 1.873 a declaration against sacramental confession received the assent of the bishops, and in 1874 Archbishop See also:Tait of Canterbury introduced a bill for enforcing the law on the ritualist clergy; it was transformed in committee, and was enacted as the Public Worship Regulation Act. It provided for the appointment of a new judge in place of the old ecclesiastical See also:judges, the officials principal, of the two provinces. Litigation increased, the only check on prosecutions being the right of the bishop to See also:veto proceedings, and in 1878—1881 four clergymen were imprisoned for disobedience to the orders of courts against whose jurisdiction they prote3ted. In consequence of the See also:scandal raised by this mode of dealing with spiritual causes, a royal commission on ecclesiastical courts was appointed in 1881, butits report in 1883 led to no results, and the bishops strove to mend matters by exercising their veto. Advanced and illegal usages became more frequent. Proceedings in respect of illegal ritual having been instituted against Bishop King of Lincoln, the archbishop of Canterbury (See also:Benson) personally 'heard and decided the case in 189o, and his judgment was upheld by the judicial committee (see LINCOLN JUDGMENT). The spiritual character of the tribunal and the authority of the judgment which sanctioned certain usages and condemned, others, had a quieting effect. Increase in ritualism, however, caused agitation in 1898, and in 1899 and 1900 the two archbishops, See also:Temple of Canterbury and Maclagan of York, delivered opinions " condemning the use of incense and processional lights, and the See also:reservation of the consecrated elements. Finding himself unable to put down illegal practices, Bishop See also:Creighton of London adopted a policy of compromise which was followed by other bishops, and encouraged illegality. Disregard of law both in excess and defect of ritual being common, a royal commission on ecclesiastical discipline was appointed in 1904. The commissioners presented a unanimous report in 1906, its chief recommendations being, briefly, that practices significant of doctrines repugnant to those of the English Church should be extirpated; that the convocations should prepare a new orna• ments See also:rubric, and See also:frame modifications in the conduct of divine service; that the diocesan and provincial courts and the court of final appeal should be reformed in accordance with the recommendations of 1883, the last to consist of a permanent body of lay judges who on all doubtful questions touching the doctrine or use of the church should be See also:bound by the. decision of an episcopal See also:assembly; that the Public Worship Regulation Act should be repealed, and the bishops' power of veto abolished. Since the Oxford movement the church has developed wonderful energy. Yet it is beset with difficulties and dangers both from within and without. Within, besides difficulties as regards ritual, it has to contend against Present See also:fife. rationalism, which has been stimulated by scientific discoveries and speculations, and far more by Biblical See also:criticism. While this criticism has been used by many as a means to a See also:fuller comprehension of divine revelation, much of it is simply destructive, and has led to ill-considered expressions of See also:opinion adverse to the doctrine of the church. From without, the church has been threatened with disestablishment both wholly and as regards the dioceses within the Welsh counties; and the education of the poor, which from early days depended on its care, has largely been taken out of its hands (see EDUCATION). The amount contributed by the church to elementary education, including the See also:maintenance of Sunday schools, in 1907—8 was £576,oI2. During the last sixty years the church has strengthened its hold on the loyalty of the nation by its increased efficiency. Its bishops are laborious and active. Since 1876 the See also:home episcopate has been increased by the creation of the dioceses of See also:Truro, St Albans, See also:Liverpool, See also:Newcastle, See also:Southwell, See also:Wakefield, Bristol, See also:Southwark and See also:Birmingham, so that there are now (191o) thirty-seven diocesan bishops, aided by twenty-eight suffragan and eight assistant bishops, and a further subdivision of dioceses is contemplated. At no other time probably have the clergy been so industrious. As a rule they are far better instructed in theology than forty years ago, but they have not advanced in secular learning. Changes in the university system have contributed to draw off able young men to other professions which offer greater worldly advantages. The poverty of many of the clergy stands in strong contrast to the wealth around them. Of 14,242 benefices 4704 are said to be below £200 a year See also:net value. The value of £loo tithe See also:rent See also:charge has sunk (1909) to £69 : 18 54, the See also:average value since the See also:Commutation Act of 1836 being £94 : 3 : 24. The number of assistant clergy is (191o) about 7500, in spite of the hardships often attending clerical life, the See also:supply of men being kept up. The Queen See also:Victoria Clergy Fund and other voluntary associations and various educational institutions have been founded to relieve clerical See also:distress. In the church at home there is much energy in numberless directions: cathedral churches have become centres of religious activity, and in parish churches the administration of the Holy Communion and See also:week-day services are frequent. Many of the laity co-operate in church work and liberally support it. During the years 1898–1907 598 churches were built or rebuilt, and during twenty-four years, 1884–1907, the voluntary offerings for church building were £27,612,709, and for endowments and parsonages £6,116,592, yet church See also:extension fails to keep See also:pace with the increase of the population. Evangelistic efforts, the See also:relief of the sick and poor, and the inculcation of See also:temperance are zealously carried on. Good work is done by twenty-six See also:sisterhoods and several institutions of deaconesses, and one or two communities of celibate clergy. In the British colonies and See also:India the episcopate consists (1909) of seven archbishops with two coadjutors; there are also seventy diocesan bishops, and in other parts of the See also:world thirty missionary bishops. The S.P. G. has 847 ordained ministers, including thirty chaplains in Europe, besides many See also:female missionaries; the C.M.S. has 793 ordained ministers, and many other missionaries of both sexes; the See also:Zenana Missionary Society has a See also:staff of 1288; other church See also:societies for foreign See also:missions are vigorous, and the S.P.C.K. in addition to its work at home spends large sums in furthering the church abroad. The benefits arising from conference have increasingly been valued since the revival of convocation. Appreciation of the importance of lay support and counsel has led to the institution of two voluntary elective assemblies called Houses of Laymen, one for each province, and in 1905 an association of the four houses of convocation and the two lay assemblies was formed with the name of the Representative Church Council. During the last forty years diocesan conferences, in which the laity are represented, have become universal, while ruridecanal and other meetings of a like kind are general. An See also:annual church See also:congress, established in 1861, held its forty-ninth See also:meeting in 1909. Of wider importance are the See also:Lambeth conferences, held since 1878 at intervals of ten years, to which the bishops of the English Church and the churches in communion with it are invited, and meet under the See also:presidency of the arch-bishop of Canterbury. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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