SKETCHES OF THE REFORMATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 5 January 1877, Page 14

SKETCHES OF THE REFORMATION.

No institution known among men had ever a more evil origin than the Anglican Church. It is almost unique in its unspeakable infamy. The closest scrutiny can discover in it not one redeeming feature. Savage pride, lust and cruelty on one hand, matchless turpitude and ignoble servility on the other; such are the foul sources of its being. The founders could not even plead the poor apology of fanaticism. They hardly so much as affected a religious motive. That plea was not urged till later, when their heirs found it necessary to justify their work. In the beginning of the socalled Anglican Reformation nobody pretended that the Church had erred in doctrine. The question did not arise. Henry put people to death for denying Catholic truths which Elizabeth put them to death for affirming. When Bacon, Cranmer's Chaplain, prematurely broached Protestant ideas, he was compelled to do public penance, and promptly retract his heresies. England was invited to accept a new lay pontiff, but that in Henry's judgment, was all the reformation she needed. She was free to believe what she always believed ; the only new article in her creed being this that all " ecclesiastical jurisdiction " has its fount in " the royal power," and not in the Chair of Peter. Admit that said Henry, and nis vice-regent Cromwell, and you may invoke the Saints, hear Mass, adore the Sacrament, and pray for the faithful departed. Woe to you if you refuse to do either ! But the invisible allies of Henry knew that this was only a beginning. They looked on with content and waited for the end. It was not long in coming. One of the popular errors of our day is to speak of tha Anglican Reformation, as if there had only been one. There were, in fact, several, each differing from the other, though all were potentially included in the first. For not only all the infinite varieties of doctrine within the Anglican Church, but all the swarming sects outside it, spring from the original denial of the supremacy of the Holy See. In that heresy every other is contained. It implies them all. It subverts the Church, denies God, puts Saints and Angels to flight, dries up the sources of grace, robs the Sacraments of their efficacy, kills unity, destroys authority, abolishes mission, and jurisdiction, makes strife incurable and division permanent, and substitutes for the light yoke and unerring guidance of " the blessed Peter, Prince of Apostles," the crushing tyranny of the godless State, or the senseless caprice of the individual conscience. Take away the Holy See, and God's Church is gone. The Church of Cain has taken its place. — * London Tablet.'