" When I recall'to mind at last, anor so many dark ages, wherein the
huge overshadowing train of error had almost swept all the stars out of the
firmament of the Church ; how the bright and blissful Reformation, by
divine power, struck though the black and seitled night of ignorance and
antichristian tyranny, ---methinks a sovereign and reviving joy must needs
rush into the bosom of him that reads or hears; and the sweet odour of the
relurning Gospel imbathe his soul with the fragrancy of Heaven."

MILTON.

WIGHTMAN AND CRAMP,

LONDON

1826.

CONTENTS.

PAGE No. I. Introductory remarks ... Character of Cobbete.... Motives for a de

fence of the Reformation not mercenary.... Antiquity and universality of the Romish Church.

1 II. Supremacy of Peter.... Roman Catholic neglect of Scriptural evi

dence.. . Cobbelt's contradictions.... Papal succession.... Atrocious crimes of the Popes.

17 111. Popes elected by the arbitrary interference of secular power....

Their authority confirmed and extended by political intrigue.... The mode of their election unsettled.... The supremacy and extent of their authority uncertain.... Contradiction of their claims to infal. libility.... Their succession interrupted by vacancies.... Their usur

pations and rivalships Infidel design of Cobbett's History. $3 IV. Origin of popery in Great Britain.... Orignal establishment of chris.

tianity in Great Britain, not Roman Catholic.... Political and reli. gious opposition to Popery before the Reformation....Sketch of the

establishment of Popery in Ireland. V. Henry VIII..... Abuse of religion by the pretensions of unprincipled

men.... Their influence in producing events they never designed.... The design of Henry VIII. in opposing papal supremacy, political and not religious... The history of the divorce of Catherine, evi. dence of the corruption of the Romish church ... The scruples of the King promoted by the Church.... His wishes sanctioned by the Pope.... The Pope's dishonourable and treacherous treatment of the King.... Distinction between what was political and what was religious in the Reformation.... Cobbett's reasoning on the unity of the Church, and his eulogy on two seditious friars.

65 VI. The manner in which the denial of papal supremacy was enforced.

.... The interference of papal authority with the authority of the King. .... The denial of the spiritual authority of the King by Protestant Dissenters.... Pecuniary exactions of the Pope.... The establishment of the Reformation not sanguinary.... More and Fisher.... Defence of Cranmer.

8!