THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS BY LAW ESTABLISHED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 961, 31 October 1910, Page 4

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS BY LAW ESTABLISHED.

. Sir,—Your correspondent "Scrutator" endeavours to reply- to my- letter on tho origin of the Church of England in, characteristic fashion. Your readers will judge with .what..success: He does not attempt . to controvert my stat-enient, backed-up by the authority and weight of the greatest modern historians—many' of them belonging to the Anglican Church, that "dcfacto" the Pope was Head of the Church in England from the time of its establishment # until tho reign of Henry VIII. Is it not a historical fact that the Chiirch of England, known in pre-Reformation days by the .Roman Curia itself as the "Ecclesia Anglicana," was established"iir'fhe" year 597 a.d. by tliePope, who approved of i-ts constitution, and appointed its Bishops; making the Sea of Canterbury the Primati.il See, subject to the See o'f Rome, with spiritual jurisdiction over the rest of England? Is it not a fact that the doctrines and liturgy of tho Church of England froiii the year 597 until the so-called Reformation, wore identically ■the same as the doctrines and liturgy of the Church known' throughout the world as the Catholic Church, wiiich acknowledges the supremacy ot the 'Pope Now, ".Scrutator" wiir surely admit that tho present day Church ot' England is a different Church from tho Catholic Church, whn9o Head in England is the Archbishop of Westminster;' ami it is r.u undeniable fact of history ..that, the preReformation Church, in England acknowledged tho sarao supreme authority, viz., that of tho Pope, professed the same doctrines and followed tho sanio identical liturgy as the Catholic Church that, today, o'ves spiritual allegiance' to the. I'ope.. now, then, can the- present-day Church of England bo the same or a continuation of the pre-Heformation Church of England? A. little common sense in all that is required to see tho force of this. So "Scrutator's" imagination—that. Laughton denied the -supremacy nf the Pope—is rather amusing. I.aughton never did. Ho resented tho Pope's temporal pretensions just as the present. Archbishop cf \Vjfstminster would resist any such if they wero made without thereby denying tho Pope's spiritual authority.' All his random statement about Papal infallibility or the Saruni Missal is only a vain beating of the air. He shows a'very insnlar and bad.taste in his remarks about the so-called "Italian Mission." It was a Roman mission which first brought to England a knowledge of lite Gospel. Ho should-also, reflect on the fact that—if I may use it—the nationality of Christ was not. English. His argument is eonseauently rather ignoble. No doubt.

"Scrutator" will lux to explain this away, but he will find it rather difficult. His'appeal to the Sarum Missal is singularly unfortunate. He can hardly bo acquainted with that venerable formulary which has only to be compared with tho Anglican Prayer Book or Ordinal, and it can at'-once be seen that the former is substantially tho same as the present-day liturgy of- the Catholic Church, while the. latter "deliberately excludes tho thief Catholic doctrines and practices of worship, and is essentially Protestant,

The Church of England, .as. by law established, to-day has nothing in common with the Church which for nigh a thousand years, was the Church of tho wholo English nation as well as the Church of every nation in Europe. The Anglican Church of to-day is purely a creation of tho State. Its supremo head is the Sovereign of the Realm. Its final infallible authority, is tho Privy Council —it is purely, an Erastian Church, not free, but bound completely to the State under the control of the State for its doctrines, discipline, and worship. The effect of tho legislation of Henry VIII, rovived by Elizabeth, and confirmed in subsequent reigns has been, as Lord Campbell pointed out in his famous Gotham judgment in April, lf!50, to locate in the Crown all that decisive jurisdiction which before the Reformation had been exercised by the Pope. Doe? "Scrutator" deny-Lord Campbell's'ability to interpret tho law in regard to the Church of England or the meaning of tho very constitution of that Church? I pass by his foolish remark about the word "Catholic." The only Catholic Church recognised by tlio world is the Church uml«r the jurisdiction of and in communion with tho See of Rome. The claim of a sect belonging -only to one nation to that name'is too ridiculous for consideration, especially when -the vast majority of tho members themselves of that sect repudiate the idea, and wish to be styled Protestants and members of a Church "as by .law established." I'would adviso "Scrutator" to be sure of his facts before he attempts such an impossible task as to prove that the pre-RefoTination Church in' England is tho same identical Church as tlio present-day Anglican Church. Ho will find that it is not the same . prison*! that: he has,got, but a fellow of quite another colour. When the State, under the Tudors, endeavoured to make the Church prisoner, it found: on opening its hands that it had there quite a different individual. The real person had esca'pcd to the wilds and secret places of the country, where he continued in stealth and at tho risk, of his very existence to worship God as his forefathers had done for a thousand years, while a stranger, occupied- his patrimony, and introduced a totally alien worship into his ■ cathedrals and churches. No aiuonnt of explaining away will make us understand why men like More, Fisher, and thousands of others laid down their lives if they were merely asked to accept not a new Church but the same Church only freed from Papal ' usurpation. .What "Scrutator" calls Papal usurpation was in. tho minds of these great pre-Reforma-tion'. authorities an essential and vital part of the Catholic Church. These men surely knew/what was. held to be essential'to the Church in the previous and-men do not lay dow,n thoir lives for a mere nothing or a trifle, as we would have to conclude- if we accepted "Scrutator's" theories about the / pre-Reforma-tion Church. It ' was because the new Church brought in an entirely new worship and liturgy' unknown during tho 1 thousand years from Augustine to Henry VIII that More,.- Fisher, : Archbishop Heath, and thousands of' others. refused to. worship in tho cathedrals and eliurches and laid down their lives, or paid fines, or went to prison. That i,<; the best of all arguments against "Scrutator's" singularly narrow; ideas. "He may bo able to dodge around . a few corners theologically, but there is absolutely no escape -for him historically—ho is surrounded by a stonewall, whenever he attempts the impossible.—l am;., etc., ; PRE-REFORMATION. Wellington, October 28, 1910. 1