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THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER OF THE ROMAN HERESY.

PURE at its fount but polluted by the channel which it has traversed, such is the Romish faith. Rome, where St. Paul preached and died,-where thousands bare testimony on cross and at stake to Jesus, where paganism underwent its death-struggle,-Rome, forgetful of her martyrs and departed worthies, has dared to pollute the sanctuary of the Most High with worse than Pharisaic superstitions!

Like the minute observances and traditional glosses of the Pharisees, her errors are so many excrescences from truth; the gradual growth of which is traceable in the annals of an age remarkable for blind superstition and vicious licence.

When Rome's temporal empire had been swept away before a torrent of northern invaders, the pure doctrines of Christianity demanded the esteem, while the learning of its ministers earned the reverential homage of their illiterate conquerors. That homage became, in course of time, a deep-rooted conviction; and, as the work of conversion progressed, all the extravagance of barbarian superstition was directed towards the spiritual head of the Roman See. The latter became a temporal prince, and, from that moment, the measures of the western church assumed a novel aspect. Its pontiffs were no longer content to sway the churches of the west; they exulted in the consciousness of a mighty influence over entire Europe, through the medium of their subordinate Clergy; and, as early as the eighth century, the horizon of European policy displayed the dim harbinger of that mighty tempest, which was destined at a future period to threaten with extermination every crowned head throughout the Christian world. I allude to the declaration by Pope Nicholas I. of his right to control all princes and governors: a claim which his successors, although continually foiled, never abandoned, until it was finally established by Pope Innocent III. early in the 13th century. During this most eventful period, its aggrandizements were maintained in no inconsiderable degree by doctrinal perversions on the part of the Holy See; and, as some acquaintance with the manner of connection that subsisted between the one and the other is necessary to a just apprehension of the distinctive character of Romanism, I will proceed to sketch briefly what appears to have been the relative position of the papacy and

feudal monarchies.

Clerical influence extended over every rank and description of men: it operated in the character of benevolence on the serf, who recognized in his priest not merely a spiritual adviser, but likewise a friendly patron, and contrasted the peaceful dignity of sacerdotal functions with the coarse brutality of his suzerains. According to prevalent custom, moreover, the ordinary transactions of life were deeply tinged with a sacred nature; and so, from the multiplicity of duties wherein the Priest bore a prominent part, he was ever before their eyes as a superior: hence among the vulgar he attained both

regard and reverence. But ecclesiastical power was not confined within the humble precincts of the hamlets, it extended to the lordly castle. Here the presence of a priest was most necessary; his anathema could check the rude retainers in their wildest moments of insubordination, his blessing inflamed their natural courage by inspiring superstitious confidence; and it sanctified the leader's ambition, while the accompanying absolution freed him from dread of retribution for the past. Whose opinion, again, carried most weight in council? Equally to the monarch and his nobles literature was an untrodden wilderness; expert on all points of military address, and skilled in those light accomplishments, which in persons of rank were then deemed indispensable, they considered serious study to be the churchman's prerogative, and listened with respect to the well digested counsels of some wary abbot. Deeply versed in the historical writings and philosophy of ancient times, the ecclesiastic recognized in passing events not only the present harm (which all were experiencing, they knew not why), but the seeds also whence it sprang, and the fruits which would ultimately prove its issue: he could duly estimate the sources of national prosperity, and detect every distant incentive to its decay. In most courts, consequently, Papal ministers possessed paramount influence. Within the monastic cloisters dwelt two distinct classes of inmates, from whom the pontiffs derived equal assistance. The cowl was assumed by the penitent or studious noble, and also by youths, whose genius supplied any deficiency, (whether of birth or riches,) and afforded them a hope of future eminence. The family interest of the former gained for the Pope an influence, which the latter were his chief and able ministers to employ most advantageously. Their exertions, aided by the local power acquired by the regular clergy, were aimed, at the period to which I refer, against monarchical independence in every quarter of Europe; and, when we reflect that it was a contest of policy against power, of cultivated intellect against superstitious ignorance, the triumph of the Papacy can scarcely surprise the reader. To the commencement of this dark era in ecclesiastical history our Homilies* justly refer us, as to the period at which the gross novelties of the Romish faith were generated, when they condemn it for being "not as it was in the beginning, but as it presently and hath been for the space of nine hundred years.”

I have endeavoured to show that, at an early period of that interval, the Roman See exercised a powerful and eventually a predominant influence over political events, and also to point out the temporal means employed in its advancement; it now remains for me to explain the corresponding alterations in the spiritual character of the Roman Church, by which this predominance was at the first greatly induced and afterwards maintained. These unscriptural innovations, like so many plague spots, were slowly and successively developed; so that, until the quasi-infallible heads of the Holy See amazed the world by a display of utter corruption, in the sale of in

See Homily for Whitsunday.

dulgences, and the promulgation of the Tridentine Canons, the diseased condition of their faith had been concealed with surprising success. Men had never known the primitive simplicity of the early Church, which now existed only in the neglected records of antiquity, so that no danger could be apprehended from a disadvantageous contrast ; and even if the condemning writings of the fathers had been published to the world, and their pure doctrines expounded by a Luther's eloquence, the voice of truth would unquestionably have been silenced by the demands of men's debased passions. The clergy, while they indulged in every species of iniquity themselves, encouraged vice in others, and the treasury of the Vatican was made a receptacle for the wages of sin. They preached doctrines which empowered them to unlock the prison house of purgatory, as well as to grant free pardon, on performance of some nominal act of penance, for any crime whatsoever; hence the most incredulous wished his doubts to be unfounded, and sought on that wish to build belief. But they did not choose to depend wholly upon popular attachment, experience teaching them that no 'ignis fatuus' was more deceptive; so they played on man's innate dread of future judgment by denouncing woes unutterable and eternal on the wretch that presumed to call in question the authority, or to thwart the interests, of the Church. "We cannot now say," writes St. Bernard* in the 16th century, "as is the people so are the priests,' for the people are not so bad as the priests;" and abundant testimony can be adduced to prove that such was the deplorable state of things from the 9th to the 16th century. I will quote a passage from a writert of the 15th century, because, while it marks the extreme licentiousness of the age, it likewise points to the bulwark cast up by Papal foresight around its errors. "Who is there," he asks, "that preaches the Gospel to the people? Who shows them the way to salvation either by word or action?"+ "If there be one perchance that does not follow their evil courses, the rest will abuse him, call him a fool, and say that he is unfit to be a priest. So that the study of the Scriptures, (together with the professors of it,) is turned into laughter and scorn by all, but especially by the popes, who prefer their traditions many degrees before God's commands." Ages before, a similar cause had produced similar effects on God's chosen people. "The prophets prophesy falsely," is the Lord's complaint by the lips of Jeremiah :§ now mark the cause wherefore his sacred word was misinterpreted—“the priests bear rule by their means!" The unholy inventions of those backsliding prophets were in unison with the spirit of their times; they sanctioned the priests in idolatry, and heathen rites under sacred names, and thus, through an impure channel, drew to them the current of popular favour, "and my people love to have it so." Like those deceivers in olden time, the mitred dissolutes, (whom Baronius and Bellarmine have sketched as monsters in vice beyond parallel,) manifested great anxiety about their false traditions, while they

* In Convers. Sancti Pauli, Serm I. + Nicolas de Clemangiis c. 3. + c. 14.

§ Jeremiah, chap. v. verse 31.

shrewdly misinterpreted and set at nought the written oracles of God. Nor were they instigated by different motives. On tradition were based their fictions of saint and image worship, the mass, absolution, an assumed infallibility of popes and councils, purgatory, indulgences, &c., that shackled the people in superstitious thraldom to their priests, who, on the other hand, yielded grateful homage to an hierarchy which communicated to them all the sweets of arbitrary power.

But both pontiff and clergy were well aware that evangelical truth, once fairly propagated, must dash from its sandy foundation this proud fabric of human ingenuity. Holy Scripture was, therefore, made a sealed book to the multitude, and none dared to use any other translation or copy of the bible than the Latin Vulgate,* on pain of excommunication. The great mass of people were thus debarred, through ignorance, from ever reading the word, and became the unconscious dupes of priestcraft, while the scholar's scruples were set at rest by traditional glosses, and the reference (in all cases of difficulty) to the infallible judgment of the Church. Well then might Pope Pius V. preface his doctrinal additions to the Nicene Creed, (a belief in which twelve novelties are exacted from all men by the Roman Church for necessity of salvation,) with this important doctrine of tradition! With good reason did the council of Trent command that the traditions, apostolical and ecclesiastical, be regarded with the same reverence as the written word!t Without such aid the anti-scriptural doctrines of purgatory, pardons, &c. could not have long continued to deform the beauty of our primitive faith, because, to use the language of our Articles," they are grounded on no warranty of Scripture, but rather contrary to the Word of God." (To be continued.)

G. H.P.

THE DOCTRINES OF THE ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. In regard to the doctrine of transubstantiation, the disagreement between the opinions entertained by the Anglo-Saxon Church and those held by the Church of Rome is, if possible, more marked and striking than on any other point. We shall find a continuous chain of evidence, from the earliest period in the Anglo-Saxon Church, against this doctrine. Even in the "Sacramentary" of Gregory, Bishop of Rome, who sent Augustine to this country, we find, so far from any intimation of this doctrine being given, that on the contrary, in a prayer contained in this production, he expressly designates the Eucharist as a pledge of eternal life," and "a sacramental image." The venerable Bede, in his works, manifests an entire agreement with Jerome and Augustine, in attributing to our Lord's eucharistic presence a character merely spiritual. The holy Supper he repreas the natural and legitimate successor of the Passover; the

sents

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"Sine Scripto Traditionibus, quæ ipsius Christi ore ab Apostolis acceptæ, aut ab ipsis Apostolis." Decret. de Canon. Script. Sess. Quarta.

+ "Pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia." Id.

latter solemnity commemorating God's mercy in delivering his ancient people from Egyptian bondage; the former, that more important deliverance which Christ has wrought for those who 'love him and keep his commandments." He proceeds to teach, 'that the Sacramental-bread has a mystical reference to the body of our blessed Lord, the wine to his blood;" and maintains that those who eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, dwell in him, and that he dwells in them. In commenting upon the Psalms, he affirms that Jesus gave to his disciples, at the last Supper," the figure of his holy body and blood;" and in the parallel which he draws between the Lord's Supper and the Passover, he tells us that in the former, "Jesus substituted for the flesh and blood of a lamb the sacrament of his own body and blood." In the time in which he wrote, the term sacrament was always considered to mean a sacred sign. Alcuin, also, a distinguished Anglo-Saxon, the secretary and adviser of Charlemagne, and the pupil of Bede, tells us that Jesus, after his ascension, became absent carnally from this lower scene, a statement utterly inconsistent with transubstantiation; he also represents the act of our Saviour, at the Last Supper, as a consecration merely, the offering being that of himself. The friend and pupil of Alcuin, Charlemagne, however, makes it still more evident that this eminent scholar rejected the doctrine of the corporeal presence. In a letter which he wrote to Alcuin, he designates the bread and wine given by Jesus to his disciples, at his parting paschal meal, as a figure of his body and blood, and as the exhibition of a mighty sacrament, highly beneficial to mankind." In the "Caroline Books," which are supposed to have been the joint production of Alcuin and Charlemagne, if not entirely written by the former, we find the mystical and sacramental, that is 'figurative, character of the holy supper, repeatedly asserted.

Raban Maur, one of the most celebrated of Alcuin's pupils, who, although not a native of this country, may be claimed as her own by the Anglo-Saxon Church, as having been educated in her schoolsand who also, we are to recollect, (a circumstance which renders his testimony more valuable,) has been termed by the most zealous advocates of the Church of Rome profoundly learned, the prince of contemporary divines, a perfect master of rhetoric, poetry, philosophy, and theology is equally decisive in his testimony. He pronounces the consecrated elements liable to all the accidents of ordinary food; a position utterly irreconcilable with a belief in transubstantiation. He declares that the consecrated elements pass, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, into a sacrament, that is, a sacred sign of our Lord's body. He draws a parallel between the act of Moses in establishing God's covenant with his ancient people, and the act of Jesus in his last paschal supper; hence he describes the eucharistic cup as mystical and typical. Haymo of Halberstadt, an Englishman by birth, and a fellow-labourer with Raban Maur, expresses similar opinions; he explains the language of our blessed Lord, as to the eating of his flesh, and the drinking of his blood, by the union subsisting between him and his faithful people. He says expressly, also, that our Lord's