THE REV. R. B. PAUL'S LECTURE ON THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 91, 2 October 1852, Page 4

THE REV. R. B. PAUL'S LECTURE ON THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

(Continued from Sept. 18.^ The general principles of the Reformation may be traced so far back as the middle of the twelfth century, when the Waldenses or Vaudois, a Christian community in the mountains of Piedmont, were joined by the scattered but ssl numerous, relics, of various heretical sects;, who were content to merge their lesser differ^ ences for the sake of joining in a, systematic crusade against the Church of Rome. They taught that the Pope was the man of sin foretold in Scripture, and that the Church of which he was the head was the scarlet whore of the Apocalypse, who sat on seven hills holding in her hand the golden cup of her filthiness, and having upon her forehead a name written " Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." In the vehement fervour of their zeal they protested:, not only against the abuses of the CHurch, but against all her ceremonial observances, however innocent or even edifying they might be. Because the churches were decorated with a profusion inconsistent with the simplicity of Christian worship, they would have stripped them even of the emblems, which had been in use perhaps from the, days of the Apostles. Because the doctrine of merit as taught by the Church of Some was absurd as well as. unscriptjiiral,, they, maintained that the best works, of men wer.e in themselves sinful. Notwithstanding, however, these absurdities, there: was enough in their system to, render them formidable opponents to a Church, which was almost daily adding to her theology doctrines, for the confirmation of which she dared not appeal either to scripture or. the writings of the early Fathers. They taught that the Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to. salvation—that Christ is the only Mediator between God and man—that prayers were in no wise to be addressed to the "Virgin Mary or the other Saints. Their very enemies were compelled to acknowledge that their lives were free from even the suspicion of impurity: and; their uncompromising sincerity and fervent zeal had gained for them a. reputation which was rapidly adding to their numbers. The papacy would in all probability have been shaken, to its very foundation, had not a still, stronger spirit of enthusiasm been called forth in, its defence. Attempts had from time to time been made to enlist such spirits in the service of the Church, but with little success—until the appearance of Francisco d'Assissi, (commonly called S. Francis), the son of a rich merchant in. that city, who : obtained the Pope's permission to institute a new order of friars in the year 1210, and Domingo Guzman, a native of Spain, who established the Dominicans five years later. The object of both was the same—to promotespirituality and purity of life by rigid corporeal discipline: they were, therefore, bound by their rulesj to content themselves with the bare necessaries of food and clothing, and to observe the vow of poverty so literally that it was. unlawful for them even to touch money. For this reason they were generally called the Mendicant or Begging Monks, and the Dominicans, (or white, friars, as they were sometimes named from the robes of white flannel which they wore), who busied themselves in preaching repentance to, the people, were further distinguished by the title of preaching monks. There seems no- reason to doubt that the founders of the Franciscan and Dominican orders were in the first instance actuated by a sincere desire of purifying the church from those corruptions which had long been the grief and shame of her more pious members; but unfortunately for the cause of true religion, it soon happened that the Pope, by craftily granting them unreasonable immunities and privileges, succeeded in converting these reformers into the mightest supporters of the system, which they had sworn to destroy. As men of superior sanctity and distinguished servants of God, they took precedence of the secular clergy, in whose parishes they were permitted by tlie Pope to say mass, preach, hear confession, absolve penitents, and found schools for the instruction of the young. Thus in the character of friends and advisers, they found their way into the houses of the laity, to whom they were recommended not merely by their reputation for sanctity, but by the total absence of haughtiness in their intercourse even with the lowest of the people. Seated in his easy chair at the peasant's fireside, with the little children of the family

climbing round his knees, the begging monk would talk to them in homely language of the papal power, derived by regular succession from the holy fisherman, to whom Christ gave the keys of heaven; and confirmed by a succession of miracles, some of them, perhaps, invented for the nonce by the narrator himself. Then he would tell them of the heretics, those raging monsters, half-man and half-devil, who blasphemed God and his Church, and whom every true Christian was bound to smite, even as Michael and his angels smote the dragon who stirred up war in heaven. By such conversations as these the chains, which had been loosened by the energetic attacks of the Waldenses, were rivetted as firmly as before ; and the people, whose faith had been grievously shaken by witnessing the profligate lives of many of the clergy, were gradually confirmed in their affection for a Church, which, instead of licentious and bloated priests, now sent to them the humble, friendly, self-denying mendicant friar. Important, however, as the aid thus rendered to the Church might seem to be, there was one element in their system which was gradually sapping the foundations of the edifice, which they seemed to have restored in all its integrity. Since, the days of Dunstan (who was born in the year 925) a jealousy had existed between the monks and the secular clergy, who resided with their families, performing the daily service, and standing nearly on the same footing as the canons of our Cathedrals ill the present day. But this arrangement was disturbed by the intrigues of Dunstan, who succeeded in placing the monks in a position of superiority to the secular clergy, which, they retained until the. Reformation. The natural consequence of so great and so successful an innovation was a feeling of dislike and jealousy between the two parties, injurious alike to religion itself and to the Church, of which they professed themselves dutiful sons. Traces of these dissensions may be found in the architecture of many, of our old cathedrals. The ugly, bloated faces, called gurgoyles,.the mouths of which are used as spouts to carry off the water from the roof of the church were probably caricatures of some of the monks. In the minster of Strasburg on the Rhine, the architects have displayed their satirical wit in a variety of forms. In one group a bear holds the. vessel of holy water and sprinkling brush, a wolf the cross, a hare the taper, a hog and ram a box of relics, in which lies a sleeping fox, whilst a donkey reads out of a book which he rests on the back of a cat. By these symbols the secular clergy intended, doubtless, to indicate the rapacity and cruelty, and cunning, and sensuality of their rivals. On the other hand the old chroniclers, most of whom were monks, have filled their pages with disparaging stories of the secular clergy ; and in revenge some of the secular priests who were satirical poets lashed without mercy the vices of their rivals, the trickery by which they were wont to obtain endowments for their monasteries, their love of hawks and hounds, and their indulgence in pleasures still more uncanonical. Meanwhile, however, the monks, reinforced by the Franciscan and Dominican orders, were gradually usurping the places of the secular or parochial clergy. In almost every parish the mendicant monk erected, his ambulatory pulpit, from which he entertained his hearers with abuse and ridicule of their parish priest. It was in the year 1234, that the Franciscans first settled at Canterbury, an establishment of the Dominicans having been formed some years earlier at Oxford. From the time of their settlement in England the influence of the secular clergy rapidly declined. Like their brethren on the continent, the mendicant friars in England professed to renounce all worldly views, and to live entirely upon the alms of the people. In learning they were far superior to their opponents, and consequently soon filled most of the professors'chairs in the universities. For the man of reading and taste they had their collections.of rare manuscripts and*the noblest architectural plans. The poor zealot was attracted by legends of their founder S. Francis, how he had received during his lifetime the impression on his hands and feet and side of the five wounds of our Saviour, who had visibly appeared to him for the purpose of imprinting them. The Dominicans on their part were by no means slow to follow their rivals in the path ot blasphemy. They affirmed that the Virgin Mary had adopted S. Duminic for her son, and that his countenance exactly corresponded with the description given of the person of our Lord

by ancient writers, with many more tales, too offensively blasphemous to bear repetition. Notwithstanding however this rivalry, the two orders made common cause against the secular clergy, and afterwards against the Reformers. Their learning and the assiduity and courage with which they carried out their plans obtained for them no inconsiderable influence at the Universities, although the persons in authority there seem to have cordially hated them, and to have welcomed any champion who was bold and able enough to attack them with their own weapons. Such a man was John Wicliffe—a native, it is said of a village bearing the same name in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He was born about the year 1324, and seems first to have distinguished himself during his residence at the university of Oxford by a controversy with the mendicant friars, who claimed a right of appointment to all academical offices. His views respecting the divine presence in the Eucharist seem not to have been different from those of Luther. He held also that confession to a priest was unnecessary, provided a man repented of his sins and sought forgiveness of God. On his return from Bruges, .whither he had been sent by the King in 1374, to discuss the question of tribute (commonly called Peter's pence) with the Pope's legate, he attacked the papal system with the most uncompromising boldness, having probably obtained ample evidence of the corruption of the See of Rome during his residence at Bruges. He now went preaching that the Scriptures contained all things necessary to salvation —denied the authority of the Pope in temporal matters—proclaimed that he was the man of sin, the son of Perdition, whom St. Paul in the spirit of prophesy describes " sitting as God in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God," and denounced him as Antichrist. These opinions he openly preached,, appealing to the Scriptures for proof of them. Circumstances favoured Wicliffe, for there were at this time two rival candidates for the papal chair, and each was too fully engaged in anathematizing the other, to he able to bestow much attention on what was going on in England. Wicliffe therefore was suffered to die a natural death and was buried in his church at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire ; but forty years later his bones were dug up by a decree of the council of Constance and burnt to, ashes. The work by which he hastened the Reformation was a translation of the Scriptures into the English language; Hitherto no blood had been shed in England on account of the reformed doctrines; but a fierce spirit was now at work and men were soon to be called to lay down their lives in testimony of their sincerity. The first martyr for the Reformation in England was a parish priest named William Sautre. When questioned by the Bisliop of Norwich,, he had formally abjured his opinions. "Let those" says old Fuller, " who severely censure him for once denying the truth, and do know who it was that denied his master thrice, take heed that they do not as bad a deed more than four times themselves." On his removal to London he was summoned before the Convocation, and charged with affirming that he would not worship the Gross on,which Christ suffered, but only Christ who suffered on the Cross ; that it was more the duty of the clergy to preach the word of God than to say the canonical hours ; and that the Sacramental bread continued tOi be bread after it was consecrated. He desired time to answer these charges, and at the end of six days delivered in a--.paper, .in, which he stated that those were his "opinions. He was then pronounced to be a heretic and sentenced to be degraded a«d handed over to the secular arm. In accordance with this sentence Sautre was brought before the Archbishop of Canterbury and six other bishops in St. Paul's cathedral. He was dressed in priestly robes, and bore in his hands the paten and chalice. The Archbishop then rose, and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, degraded him from his rank as priest, and in token of the degradation, plucked the paten and chalice out of his hands. The New Testament was then, given to him and immediately taken from him, and the stole torn off, to degrade him from the office of deacon. In the same manner he was degraded in succession from the offices of sub-deacon, acolyte, exorcist, and lectionary, and finally stripped of his surplice, and deprived of the key of the church door, which he held in his hand, as being now reduced to the rank of sexton. The priest's cap was then laid aside, his head shaved, and a layman's cap

placed on it. The ceremony of degradation having been now fully performed, he -was delivered over as a secular person to the Court of the High Constable and Marshal of England, with the hypocritical recommendation to mercy which the Church of Rome always employed, when she delivered over her victims to be burnt at the stake by the secular power. The Commissionersappointed to search our heretics & heretical books now represented to the Icing that the divisions in the Church could never be healed, unless certain men of rank who favored the doctrine of Wicliffe, were removed, specifyingby name Sir Thomas Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, a man of noble birth, and at that time in high favour at the Court of Henry V. He was accused of holding heretical opinions concerning the Sacrament, penance, pilgrimages, the adoration of images and the authority of the church of Eome. It happened about this time that a book belonging to Lord Cobhaxn was discovered among a pile of heretical works which were burnt at Paul's cross. Extracts from this book were laid before the King, who sent for Lord Cobham, chid him severely for having such a work in his possession, and admonished him, as an obedient child, to seek forthwith the forgiveness of the Church. The reply of Cobham was magnanimous. " To you, most excellent Prince, I am ever ready to render true and faithful obedience, being at all times ready to fulfil whatsoever ye shall in the Lord command me. But as touching the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor service; for somuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great Antichrist, the son of perdition and the open adversary of God." Cobham now retired to his castle of Cowling, in Kent, where he seems to have contemplated defending himself after the manner of the ancient feudal barons. In vain were citations sent to his castle, summoning him to appear in the Archbishop's court. The messengers were ill—treated and one of them it is said, was forced to swallow the parchment on which the citation was written. At last, a paper was forwarded by him to the King, purporting to be the Christian Belief of the v Lord Cohham. This document began with the Apostle's creed, to which was added a declaration of his own faith more at length. His professed his belief that the body and blood of Christ were verily and indeed contained in the Sacrament of the altar, under the similitude of bread and wine, that the law of God was most true and perfect, and if any bishop or priest required of a man more than obedience to that law, he was a despiser of Christ, exalting himself above God—and thus became an Antichrist." This paper the King handed over to the Archbishop of Canterbury, without even looking at its contents. After a long trial he was condemned as a pernicious and detestable heretic, and committed as such to the secular power, to be put to death. As soon as this sentence was pronounced by Archbishop Arundel, Lord Cobham with a firm voice addressed his judges in these words "Though ye judge my body, which is hut a wretched thing, yet am I certain and sure that you can do no harm to my soul, no more than could Satan upon the soul of Job. He who created that, will of his infinite mercy and promise save it ; I have therein no manner of doubt. Ami as concerning these articles before rehearsed, I will stand to them even to the very death, by the grace of my eternal God." Turning to the spectators then, he spread his hands, and spake with a louder voice, saying ''Good Christian people, for God's love be well aware of these men, for they will else beguile you, and lead you blindling into hell with themselves. For Christ saith plainly unto you ' It one blind man lead another, they are like both of them to fall into the ditch.' Then kneeling down before them, he prayed for his enemies " Lord God eternal! I beseech thee, of thy great mercy's sake, to forgive my pursuers, if it be thy blessed will." He was then committed to the tower, from which he soon afterwards contrived to escape by the assistance of his friends. A large reward was offered for taking him dead or alive, but he remained concealed for four years, and probably would never have been taken alive, had not a woman broke both his legs with a stool. Mutilated as he was he was carried in a horserlitter; and being hung by the middle in chains, was burnt at the stake, praising and glorifying God with his last breath. The accounts •which we possess of these proceedings are so perplexed and extraordinary, that it is almost impossible to ascertain the facts with any tolerable degree

of certainty. As far as we can understand however, Lord Cobham appears to have been connected to a considerable extent with the factious proceedings of the Lollards (as the followers of Wieliffe were called) who seem to have been a formidable political party as well as a religious sect. The mode of his death however, is sufficient proof, that even if a charge of treason were brought against him, the lesser accusation was merged in the greater, and that he suffered not as a traitor but a heretic : thus affording another instance of the recognition in those days by the Church of Rome of the atrocious principle, that it was lawful to exterminate heresy by the sword. (To be continued.)