populace, and of which the inhabitants, being better informed than the rustics, were more alive to the corruptions of Popery than they, shameful outrages took place in churches. They became the scenes of quarrelling, riot, and even bloodshed, horses and mules were led into them, guns were discharged within their walls, and a hideous spirit of profanation began to stalk among the unthinking multitude. For the sake of removing from the Reformation the stain of such glaring scandals, a royal proclamation forbade all irreverent acts in edifices assigned to public worship, under pain of his Majesty's indignation, and of imprisonment.

But much more than by these sallies of rude licentiousness, were individuals of sound religious principles now disquieted by the growth of pestilent opinions engendered from the unwonted liberty of conscience so freely conceded to all

When the sensible austerities of Romanism were held up to merited contempt, spiritual pride was driven into another direction. That seductive species of fanaticism, which leads men to value themselves upon imaginary religious privileges, sprung up in spirits fitted for its nurture.

Strype, Mem. Cranm. 251. "It is observed in the Registerbook of the parish of Petworth, that many at this time affirmed the sacrament of the altar to be of little regard, that in many places it was cast out of the church, and many other great enormities committed; which they seconded by oppugning the established ceremonies; as holy water, holy bread, and other usages of the seven sacraments." Heylin, Hist. Ref. 63.

Men were found to arise from the perusal of Scripture, not impressed with an humble conviction, that eminent spiritual advantages impose the duty of more than ordinary circumspection, but with crude notions of extraordinary privileges conferred upon God's elect; a designation which readers of that cast never fail of applying to themselves. It was also taught by some ill-informed or ill-judging preachers and writers, that the elect did not, and could not sin; that the regenerate never fall from godly love; and that the elect have a right to take so much of this world's goods as will supply their necessities. Doctrines like these which nourish spiritual pride, and an indifference to moral restraints, which encourage idleness by asserting the right of certain favoured individuals to the rewards of industry, though shunning honest endeavours to obtain them, will never want converts so long as the world contains supercilious enthusiasts, and idle hypocrites. It is, however, the duty of those who form the moral and intellectual strength of a country to stand forward as the opponents of such pestilent assumptions; and it is the duty of such as guide the national affairs to restrain by means of penalties, if necessary, the dissemination of principles injurious to the peace of society. Such restraint was now imperiously demanded. Not only was the Reformation exposed to unmerited obloquy from the conflicting or the pernicious tenets advanced by persons who had turned their backs upon Romanism, but the excited passions of the

populace afforded a specious colour to those who were ever misrepresenting the religious changes in agitation, or actually effected. The contempt heaped upon Romish doctrines had even afforded a pretence to youthful petulance, and vulgar insolence, to insult the clergy as they walked along the streets of London. Wanton apprentices and servants, on meeting men in clerical or scholastic habits, jostled them, knocked their caps from off their heads, and tore their tippets from their shoulders. It had been found necessary to repress this disposition to daring outrage by a royal proclamation, issued in the last November. But, as must be inferred from the manner in which churches were now profaned, the grosser elements of society were still in a most unsettled and unsatisfactory state respecting their religious principles. It was, therefore, deemed desirable to repress the dissemination of wild and heterodox opinions, by allowing none to preach unless they were notoriously guided by a sound discretion. All clergymen, accordingly, were inhibited from the delivery of sermons without being licensed for that purpose by the Protector, or the Archbishop of Canterbury'. The royal proclamation, imposing this restraint upon the pulpit, also commanded the bishops to punish by ecclesiastical

* Extracts from the Proceedings of Privy Council, from the year 1545 to the year 1558, by H. Ellis, Esq. F.R.S. From the Archæologia. Lond. 1815. p. 9.

"By proclamation, bearing date the 24th of April." Heylin, Hist. Ref. 60.

were first to take effect among a population which had been imbued from the cradle with such doctrines, and of whom many individuals would encounter their mortal agony in an unsatisfied state of mind, if they had found themselves unable to hear, at the approach of death, that assurance of pardon from the lips of an authorised minister which had calmed the dying moments of their fathers. This period of spiritual blindness has happily passed over as to England, but this indicative form of absolution is, notwithstanding, wisely allowed to hold its accustomed place in the formularies of her Church. Because, although Romanism has long received her mortal wound, she still rears her head erect, and makes vigorous struggles to escape her inevitable fate. Hence, until the period when the Catholic Church shall have wholly ceased to feel her pernicious influence, it is wise to retain a form which may prove essential to the comfort of individuals escaped recently and imperfectly from her insidious toils. But in making this kind provision for the peace of a converted Romanist, the Church of England has taken especial care to guard him from the delusions of that sacramental doctrine in which his prejudices have been formed. She allows him, indeed, to hear the words of absolution positively pronounced by God's accredited agent. These words, however, are introduced by a declaration, that ministers have no power to dispense any such comfort unless to those who truly repent, and believe in the Saviour. Thus is every ap

pearance of claiming the privilege of converting attrition into contrition, by the Romish operation of a sacramental act, expressly avoided; and the sick man is admonished, that without genuine repentance and faith, his spiritual adviser has no power whatever to pronounce the pardon of his iniquities. Plainly, therefore, the indicative form of absolution, as used in the English Church, is virtually declarative, and nothing more. It is merely intended to assure those, in an authoritative way, who long for such assurance, and whose case, well considered, appears to warrant it, that God is pledged to pardon all true penitents. Than this, nothing can be more decidedly at variance with the Romish doctrine, which represents auricular confession and priestly absolution as integral parts of a sacrament capable by its ordinary operation to procure the pardon of such sinners as must otherwise necessarily be lost.

Cranmer early rose superior to his Romish prejudices upon the subject of sacramental penance. Among the replies to various queries upon the sacraments, drawn up in the year 1540, and preserved among the Stillingfleet MSS., which are now at Lambeth, is the following decisive judgment from the Archbishop's pen :-"A man is not bound by the authority of this Scripture, quorum remiseritis, and such like, to confess his secret deadly sins to a priest; although he may have him." (Burnet Records, I. 344. Collier, Records, II. 52.) Evidently from this passage Cranmer's mind was made up as to denying that the sacerdotal binding and loosing of Scripture has any thing to do with the conversion of attrition into contrition. Unless, however, this be believed, the Romish sacrament of penance falls to the ground. For who would submit to the disgust and degrada