Volume III Part 4 (2/2)

So, too, of the saints. ”The saints may be honoured because they are with Christ in glory; and though Christ be the only Mediator, yet we may pray to the saints to pray for us and with us unto Almighty G.o.d; we may say to them, 'All holy angels and saints in heaven, pray for us and with us unto the Father, that for his dear Son Jesus Christ's sake we may have grace of Him and remission of our sins, with an earnest purpose to keep his holy commandments, and never to decline from the same again unto our lives' end.'”

[Sidenote: Purgatory to be received in a general sense,]

[Sidenote: But special interpretation as far as possible to be avoided.]

Finally, on the great vexed question of purgatory. ”Forasmuch as the due order of charity requireth, and the books of Maccabees and divers antient doctors plainly shew, that it is a very good, charitable deed to pray for souls departed; and forasmuch as such usage hath continued in the Church for many years, no man ought to be grieved with the continuance of the same. But forasmuch as the place where they be, the name thereof, and kind of pains there, be to us uncertain by Scripture, therefore this with all other things we remit unto Almighty G.o.d, unto whose mercy it is meet and convenient for us to commend them, trusting that G.o.d accepteth our prayers for them. Wherefore it is much necessary that such abuses be clearly put away, which, under the name of purgatory, hath been advanced; as to make men believe that through the Bishop of Rome's pardons men might be delivered out of purgatory and all the pains of it, or that ma.s.ses said at any place or before any image might deliver them from their pain and send them straight to heaven.”[70]

We have now before us the stormy eloquence of Pole, the iconoclasm of Latimer, the superst.i.tions of the complaining clergy--representing three principles struggling one against the other, and the voice of the pilot heard above the tempest. Each of these contained some element which the other needed; they were to fret and chafe till the dust was beaten off, and the grains of gold could meet and fuse.

[Sidenote: The articles pa.s.s convocation, but create dissatisfaction.]

The articles were debated in convocation, and pa.s.sed because it was the king's will. No party were pleased. The Protestants exclaimed against the countenance to superst.i.tion; the Anglo-Catholics lamented the visible taint of heresy, the reduced number of the sacraments, the doubtful language upon purgatory, and the silence--dangerously significant--on the nature of the priesthood. They were signed, however, by all sides; and by Cromwell, now Lord Cromwell, lord privy seal, and not vicar-general only, but appointed vicegerent of the king in all matters ecclesiastical, they were sent round through the English counties, to be obeyed by every man at his peril.[71]

[Sidenote: Convocation decree that the Pope has no power to call general councils.]

The great matters being thus disposed of, the business of the session concluded with a resolution pa.s.sed on the 20th of July, respecting general councils. The Pope, at the beginning of June, had issued notice of a council to be a.s.sembled, if possible, at Mantua, in the following year. The English government were contented to recognise a council called _ad loc.u.m indifferentem_, with the consent of the great powers of Europe. They would send no delegates to a petty Italian princ.i.p.ality, where the decrees would be dictated by the Pope and the Emperor. The convocation p.r.o.nounced that the Pope had gone beyond his authority: a general council could not legally be called without the consent of all Christian princes; to princes the right belonged of determining the time and place of such an a.s.sembly, of appointing the judges, of fixing the order of proceeding, and of deciding even upon the doctrines which might lawfully be allowed and defended.[72]

This was the last act of the year; immediately after, the convocation was prorogued. From the temper which had been displayed, it was easy to see that trouble was impending. The form which it would a.s.sume was soon to show itself.

Meanwhile, an event occurred of deeper importance than decrees of councils, convocation quarrels, and moves and counter-moves on the political chessboard; an event not to be pa.s.sed by in silence, though I can only glance at it.

The agitation caused by the queen's trial had suspended hitherto the fate of the monasteries. On the dispersion of the clergy a commission was appointed by Cromwell, to put in force the act of dissolution;[73]

and a series of injunctions were simultaneously issued, one of which related to the articles of faith, another to the observance of the order diminis.h.i.+ng the number of holy-days; a third forbade the extolling the special virtue of images and relics, as things which had caused much folly and superst.i.tion; the people should learn that G.o.d would be better pleased to see them providing for their families by honest labour, than by idling upon pilgrimages; if they had money to spare, they might give it in charity to the poor.

[Sidenote: Directions issued for the education of the people.]

The paternoster, the apostles' creed, and the ten commandments had been lately published in English. Fathers of families, schoolmasters, and heads of households were to take care that these fundamental elements of the Christian faith should be learnt by the children and servants under their care; and the law of the land was to be better observed, which directed that every child should be brought up either to learning or to some honest occupation, ”lest they should fall to sloth and idleness, and being brought after to calamity and misery, impute their ruin to those who suffered them to be brought up idly in their youth.”

[Sidenote: A Bible in English to be provided in every parish.]

An order follows, of more significance: ”Every parson or proprietary of every parish church within this realm shall, on this side of the feast of St. Peter ad Vincula next coming,[74] provide a book of the whole Bible, both in Latin and also in English, and lay the same in the quire, for every man that will to read and look therein; and shall discourage no man from reading any part of the Bible, but rather comfort, exhort, and admonish every man to read the same, as the very word of G.o.d and the spiritual food of man's soul; ever gently and charitably exhorting them, that using a sober and modest behaviour in the reading and inquisition of the true sense of the same, they do in nowise stiffly or eagerly contend or strive one with another about the same, but refer the declaration of those places that be in controversy to the judgment of the learned.”

[Sidenote: Translations existing before the Reformation.]

The publication of the English translation of the Bible, with the permission for its free use among the people--the greatest, because the purest victory so far gained by the Reformers--was at length accomplished; a few words will explain how, and by whom. Before the Reformation, two versions existed of the Bible in English--two certainly, perhaps three. One was Wicliffe's; another, based on Wicliffe's, but tinted more strongly with the peculiar opinions of the Lollards, followed at the beginning of the fifteenth century; and there is said to have been a third, but no copy of _this_ is known to survive, and the history of it is vague.[75] The possession or the use of these translations was prohibited by the Church, under pain of death.

They were extremely rare, and little read; and it was not till Luther's great movement began in Germany, and his tracts and commentaries found their way into England, that a practical determination was awakened among the people, to have before them, in their own tongue, the book on which their faith was built.

[Sidenote: Tyndal's New Testament.]

[Sidenote: Rapid sale in England.]

I have already described how William Tyndal felt his heart burn in him to accomplish this great work for his country; how he applied for a.s.sistance to a learned bishop; how he discovered rapidly that the a.s.sistance which he would receive from the Church authorities would be a speedy elevation to martyrdom; how he went across the Channel to Luther, and thence to Antwerp; and how he there, in the year 1526, achieved and printed the first edition of the New Testament. It was seen how copies were carried over secretly to London, and circulated in thousands by the Christian Brothers. The council threatened; the bishops anathematized.

They opened subscriptions to buy up the hated and dreaded volumes. They burnt them publicly in St. Paul's. The whip, the gaol, the stake, did their worst; and their worst was nothing. The high dignitaries of the earth were fighting against Heaven, and met the success which ever attends such contests. Three editions were sold before 1530; and in that year a fresh instalment was completed. The Pentateuch was added to the New Testament; and afterwards, by Tyndal himself, or under Tyndal's eyes, the historical books, the Psalms and Prophets. At length the whole canon was translated, and published in separate portions.

[Sidenote: The bishops' protest.]

[Sidenote: The king commands them to prepare a new translation.]

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