"THE ROYAL SUPREMACY."

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1077, 27 April 1867, Page 6

"THE ROYAL SUPREMACY."

llrinj a Lecture on the above subject read al the rooms of the Young J1 fjn's Christian luekland, A/arch 15, ISG7, by S. Kcmplhornc, J.l'., formerly Member of the First L'.rjislttlive Council of Xew Zealand, (Continued J In 120S tlio Popo placed tho whole kingdom under an interdict, by virtuo of which nil divine services and ceremonies wore stopped, except baptisms. On the back of this came next year, tho sentence of excommunication, which win supposed to render tho King impious and an outcast from society. In 1011, the Pops absolved his subjects from their oavhs of allegiance, und lastly in 1212, the Pope tendered tho kingdom to Philip of France and published a crusade aqainat the anathematized monarch all over Kuropj, exhorting men to enlift under tho French banner. But Philip was only put forth as a tool by the Vatican, Pundulph the legate, was secretly commissioned to m iko terms with John. Tho wretched monarch, finding his case desperate, swore to perform whatever the I'opo should impose upon him. Before all the people, —with his h inda held up between those of the legato ho thus slavishly denlared, " I, John, King of England, &c., in order to expiate my sins, of my own free will, give to the Church of Home, the Kingdom of England and all other prerogatives of my frown, I will hereaf c.' hold them as (he Pope's vasEal." Having thus done homage to the legate, ho received the crown again from him ; while the legato trampled under his feet the tribute of 1,000 marks, which John had consented to pay yearly. Some say the doctrino of tho Royal d upremacy is difficult to understand, but what schoolboy of ten years, does not understand this story of Ecclesiastical Supremacy and feel his btirrod within him at iis recital ? In Henry lll.'s reign (1216) the oxtentto which the Pope's exactions reached, aro tlms noticed by tho historian. " All tho chief benefices of tho kingdom were filled by Ita'ians, (many of whom held a largo number of pluralities) ; the Pope exacted tho revenues of all vacant benefices ; the twentieth of all Ecclesiastical livings ; one-third of such as exceed 100 marks a-j ear and the half of suchaa wc-renon-rcsidenis. He claimed tho goods of all intestate Clergymen ; a right of inheriting ail money obtained by usury ; and he levied voluntary contributions on the people. In Edward lll.'s reign (1327) Popa Urban T. demanded in 1365, the payment of tho tribute imposed on King John, which had not been paid (probably on account of the quarrels between adverse Popes themselves) for 3 5 years. Tho King indignantly rejected the claim, and the Parliament declared thnt John had anted against hi<s coronation oath, and that tho tributo should be resisted by the King with all his subjects, with all their forco and power. It is calculated that in tho 13th conlury, the country paid 950,000 marks for tributes, pardons, dispensations and indulgences, a sum equal to 12 millions sterling of our money. C.in we wonder at the tenacity with which tho sect of Rome and ita adherents grasped such a prize, or at tho fierce zeal with which they persecuted tho Lollards, when thoy found their doctrines undermining tho Etupeiidous fabric of superstition which they hud erected ? Even in these dark times, throo great names may bo mentioned as opposing the Pope's claims, and urging the great antidote to them, the use of tho Scriptures for tho people. Uroslcle, Bishop of Lincoln, in 1235, waa excommunicated by the Pope, but he kept his see and was honoured by tho Clergy, secular "as well a? regular, at his death. Jiradwardine Edward lll.'s chaplain at tho battle of Crecy, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Fifzßctlph, Archbishop of Armagh were both oxcollent men, and prepared tho way in some degree .'or Wyclilfe, and show ua the kind of men on whom tho King relied in opposing the Pope's claims. In Eijliard ll.'s reign (1377) John Wycliflfe, Prießt of Lutterworth has the honor of being tho first priest, who had the sagacity to Be*i, and the courago to expose the errors of the prevailing religion. The Supremacy of ths Pope was a mattor which ho had been called upon to oppose as early as 1365' All tho weight of tho Hierarchy was bent against "WyclifTe, but ho was well befriended by John of Gaunt, " timo honored Lancaster," (3rd son of Edward III) by tho widow of the Black Prince, and by the 11 good Queen Anne," "who came from Bohemia. His own high standing, talents and oharacter, at Oxford, stood him in good stead. He is well known, as having been the first to translate the Scriptures into the English tongue. Ho died in 1385. The seed sown by Wycliffe waa never lost in England, and wbb carried into Bohemia by some who came over with Queen Anne; it wrought in

the hearts of many in that country, an ardent love for tho reformed doctrines. The martyrdom of thoso two good and noble men John Muss, and Jerome of Prague (1416), by the Council of Constance, bear witness to the influence of Wycliffe's works. The Council enraged, ordered his bones to be disinterred and burnt, which order was carried into effect.

In this weak king's reign (Richard II), the first penal statute against Heretics was enacted by the King's sole authority. Though therefore illegal, it answered the purpose of the Ecclesiastics, by giving the colour of authority to the bitter persecution which they raised against the Lollards.

Henry IV, (1399), to make good his usurped title, this King bent his neck to the yoke of the Hierarchy, and was the first of the English Kings to allow them to employ the horrible ordeal of tho fire tor the extermination of Heretic-. Tho statute called "ex officio" (1490) or tho " Burning Statute," authorized this dreadful cruelty. Archbishop Arundel soon followed it up by his Ecclesiastical regulations, called tho " Constitutions of Arundel," which were of tho most searching and arbitrary character, levelled against tho Lollards, Wycliffe's hooks, and against translations of the Bible.

In Henry V.'s roign (1413), that most estimable man aud valiant knight, fcir John Uldfnstlo, Lord C'obham—who may bo called the proto-martyr of England—suffered death in defence of the reformed doctrines. He owed his knowledge cf the Gospel to Wycliffe, and oxerted himself in a most able manner, to spread it among the students in the University of Oxford, and by moans of paid preachers in the midland counties. Archbishop Chickeley summoned the whole Hierarchy to meet in convocation against him. and urged the King to deliver him up to them. Cobham having been a favourite of the King, Henry endeavoured to argue with him, to induce him to submit to tho Pope. Cobham replied thus,—" iou most worthy Prince, I am always prompt and willing to obey, forasmuch as I know you to be a most Christian king and tho appointed minister of God, bearing the sword, to the punishment of evil-doers and for safeguard of them that be virtuous; but as touching the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor service." Tho King turned from him in anger, saying he Bhould submit hims«lf to tho Archbishop, into whose hands ho was delivered and after a long examination, sent to the Tower. From thence he escaped for four years, but was afterwards betrayed and suffered martyrdom. Though a knight of high rank, he was dragged through London on a hurdle to St. Giles's, whero being hung in chains over the fir«, he was burnt to death, praying for his enemies, atid exhorting tiie people to be firm in tho faith.

In tho subsoquont reigns the turmoils of the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, gave full scope to the power of tho Hierarchy, who endeavoured to stamp out Lord Cobham's evangelizing efforts, by fire and sword; yet still tho reformed doctrines made way among the people ; as of old, the bush was on fire, but it was not consumed, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of tho Church. No more forcible way could possibly have been invented in those dark and ignorant times, to spread the doctrines of the Gospel, than thu3 bringing it before the multitude, in the destruction of those who were seen by their lives and conversation to be the excellent of tho <-arth. As good old liishop Latimer said to Bishop "idloy, when they were burnt together at Oxford, "Bo of good comfort, if aster Ridley, play the man ; we shall this day light such a candle, as by God's grace in b'ngland, I trust shall never be put out!" The people of London, had, at length, their indignation wrought to such a pitch, that Bishop Bonne , in Mary's reign, was obliged to convoy fire victims to Fulham,the place of his own palace, and from thence the martyrs were conveyed'to Brentford, to be still more out of the way, and there burnt.

Section 3. Reformation-Monasteries abolished.—The glorious light of the Reformed Doctrines at leugt broke forth in full vigour in England, and the doctrine of the Koyal Supremacy was soon to form one of them, clear and distinct by itself. The power of the lliera;ehy was greatly subdued by the destruction of the monasteries. The depravity of morals engendered by them, had become so intolerable, that oven tho Pope was brought to consent to their reduction. This was first begun by Cardinal Moreton, in tho roign of that politic monarch, Henry VIT. Then Cardinal Wolsey continued their reduction, in order to raisj funds to build his new colleges at Ipswich and Christchurch, Oxford. Their destruction was completed by Henry VIII., the spoils being grasped for his own nee-ssities or awarded to his favorites and tho nobles. All this tended to restore the rightful power to |the monarchs. It cannot but bo observed, in passing, how similarly in our times the King of Italy has acted with roferencc to thoso enormous monastic establishments in Italy ; it shows how fundamentally they are opposed to the interests of the community as well as to the power of tho Crown.

The assumption of tho Supremacy, ft 3is well known, was brought about in a wonderful manner. Henry VlfT. (1509) in the unhappy matte*- of his divorce from Queen Catherine, weariod and disgusted with tho delays and evasions of tho Pope, at Cranmer's suggestion, appealed to the Universities. Tho Pope wont then to the extremities of excommunication, hut tho times were changed! The progress of the Reformation had destroyed his power in England, and his Bull became a dead letter.

Henry then resolved to proclaim himself " Head of tho Church," which, as was jail before, Parliament adopted in 1531, thus carrying out the precedent shadowed forth by Honry IX., in tho Constitutions of Clarendon.

No one will justify the occasion on which this assumption was made by Henry; still less, the dreadful atrocities which this tyrannical monarch committed under color of tho principlo. Nevertheless the doctrino was a perfectly sound and scriptural one, as will be presently seon. We must romember that those wore times when freedom of opinion, or of speech and action woro scarcely known, and liberty was not understood. The wars of tho " Roses " had filled the kingdom with vi >lence and bloodshed from one end to tho other. Tho Ecclesiastics with the statute "ox officio " in their hands, had sacrificed hundreds of innocent and holy lives. What wonder that lil'o should bo hold inexpressibly cheap, when tho wilt of tho monarch, in his turn, was equivalent to law !

The Stuart Dynasty (1603), claimed the Bame arbitrary powers as tho Tudars, hut they were devoid of that strong common honest;, plain dealing, and knowledge of tho 'English character, which their predecessors evinced, and which carried tho Tudors over many a thorny pat'-, and smoothed down many a diacontonted opponent. Tho growing knowledge and intelligence of tho peoplo revived by tho Reformation ; tho circulation of tho Scriptures, printing, and the progress of sound learning were opposed to these claims of arbitrary power.

The Stuarts therefore endeavoured to sustain the claim on a religious basis, that of " Divine right but they made a fatal mistake in trying to establish it above tho law. Tho English people have an innate senso of justice and of legal rights, and having lately rejected a forc : gn Hierarchy aui reduced tho national Hierarchy to its proper position. They could not endure that their monarchs should act as tyrants over them.

Charles I bailced by two mon of liko lofty aspirations with himself, William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Thomas Wentworth, Karl Strafford, thought to maintain arbitrary rule. By tho agency of the Star Chamber and High Commission Court, they cruelly oppressed, lined, maimed and tortured many. They endeavoured to overrule or overawe tho judges, to revive Romish vestments and ceremonies in England, and tj force Episcopacy on Scotland, by rr.any most violent and tyrannical measures. All three suffered a torriblo and extreme retribution ! They had mistaken their own position, and tho genius of the people ; they had misunderstood tho doctrines «f tho ehurch. Tho result was t.he Great Rebellion, and the final overthrow of tho Stuart family.

{To be continued.)