pardons, beads, holy shoes, holy rules, and all full of holiness. And what thing can be more foolish, more superstitious, or ungodly, than that men, women, and children, should wear a friar's coat to deliver them from agues or pestilence? or when they die, or when they be buried, cause it to be cast upon them, in hope thereby to be saved?" If this catalogue of base devices for duping and pillaging mankind were read to an assembly of modern Protestants, the advocates of Romanism would affirm, that the picture was overcharged, the practices really existing unauthorised, and infrequent: but those to whom the homilies were originally addressed could not deny, that the whole land had teemed with pretenders to superior holiness, and with superstitious wares; and that both of these, however repugnant to God's recorded will, were encouraged by all the leading ecclesiastics of the time. Nor could serious and candid readers of their Bibles elude a conviction, that the censures passed by Christ upon the traditionists of the Jewish Church, were applicable to the same class of persons among Christians. In the latter case as in the former, the alleged supplement made what is unquestionably "the commandment of God, of none effect"." Civil obedience was weakened by the claims of a foreign prelate; individuals personally renounced the world, but they were members of opulent communities', in a state to disregard the calls of Homilies. Oxf. 1802. a St. Matt. xv. 6. "By this subtle sophistical term Proprium in commune, that a needy relative, yet to enrich the common purse by accepting whatever might be offered; marriage, which God has allowed to all, was renounced under the plea of sanctity, by those who notoriously gave way to detestable lewdness; and under pretence of long prayers and masses for the dead, were devoured widows' houses". The remaining homilies, which are seven in number, treat only of practical subjects, and thus the whole publication is eminently creditable to the temper and discretion of those who prepared it. We find in it no unsparing attacks upon the more excusable prejudices of any man, is to say, Proper in common, they (monks) mocked the world, persuading, that notwithstanding all their possessions and riches, yet they kept their vow, and were in wilful poverty." Homilies. 47. "But for all their riches, they might neither help father or mother, nor other that were indeed very needy and poor, without the licence of their father abbot, prior, or warden; and yet they might take of every man, but they might not give aught to any man, no not to them whom the laws of God bound them to help; and, so, through their traditions and rules, the laws of God could bear no rule with them." (Ibid.) Any man acquainted with his Bible, could hardly fail, when reminded of these facts, to think of what Christ said to the Jewish traditionists of old. "But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free." St. Matt. xv. 5, 6. J St. Mark xii. 40. e Their titles are, Of Christian love and charity: Against swearing and perjury: Of the declining from God: An exhortation against the fear of death: An exhortation to obedience: Against whoredom and adultery: Against strife and contention. only an exposure of such Romish abuses as the more candid friends of Popery have ever viewed with regret. It is, indeed, true that no Romish principle is advocated, and that Christian traditions are placed upon a level with those of Judaism and Paganism. With respect to these things, however, it was happily now in men's power to compare the authorised exposition of their faith and duty with the Sacred Record. Nor if in this they could discover no clear warrant for Romish peculiarities, and should mark our Saviour's reprobation of such doctrines as are only grounded upon tradition; could honest and intelligent enquirers doubt, that in teaching nothing incapable of proof from the infallible Word of God, their spiritual guides had acted with that sound wisdom which alone could entitle them to the public confidence. In addition to the homilies, it was determined that each parish in the kingdom should be cómpelled to provide itself with the Paraphrase of Erasmus. It seems not improbable, that the late King had been disposed to patronise an English translation of this work, for Nicholas Udal', who "An excellent grammarian and instructor of youth, as well as a learned divine: afterward (in 1551,) a Prebendary of Windsor: a person he was that devoted himself wholly, during his life, to writing or translating matters that might be of public profit and use.-Divers select persons were made use of in this translation, that it might the more speedily and correctly be done for the common benefit. Udal translated the paraphrase apon St. Luke: and that which he did besides was, the digesting and placing the texts throughout the Gospels and the Acts, chiefly edited that part of it now published, had completed a version of St. Luke in the year 1543, and had dedicated it to the Queen Catharine Parr. At the suggestion of that religious queen, the Lady Mary had employed herself in rendering into English the paraphrase upon St. John"; but she appears to have prosecuted the design with no great spirit, and at last, she made it over to her chaplain, Dr. Malet. Of this work, by which Erasmus had unintentionally produced an effect so powerful, only the four Gospels with the Acts of the Apostles were already in an English dress, and these were now published by authority. Private individuals were also active in enlightening, by means of the press, the public mind respecting the usurpations and errors of Popery. Henry, Lord Stafford published a translation of the treatise upon the royal and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, printed in Latin during the reign of the late King, and in his name. At the end of except in the Gospel of St. Mark, done by another, to the intent the reader might perceive, where and how the process and circumstance of the paraphrase answered to the text, and how it was joined with it." Strype, Eccl. Mem. II. 45. Ibid. 48. "Perhaps she did this, the better to please the King her father." Ibid. 46. "The rest of the New Testament was not so ready for the press, and came not forth till about 1549. The second impression was in the year 1552. Both printed by Edward Whitchurch." Ibid. 48. * Entitled "De vera Differentia inter Regiam Potestatem et Ecclesiasticam." Called the King's Book, either because King Henry was the author, or rather the authoriser of it. Ibid. 41. October, was brought out a translation of the plan for reforming the Church drawn up by Herman, the virtuous and enlightened Archbishop Elector of Cologne'. These works were probably pub lished with the approbation of the English government: two other translations, levelled at the mass and the abuses which have flowed from it, seem by their severity to have proceeded from some unauthorised men of letters". Amidst this activity of the press, Archbishop Cranmer exerted himself with his usual diligence. An elementary book of religious instruction, which had been published at Nuremberg, in the German language, was translated into Latin by Justus Jonas, the younger, now living with the Archbishop, by whom the little work was rendered, somewhat altered, into English ". The piece was published under the title of " Catechismus, that is to say, A m Ibid. 44. 1 Ibid. Strype, Mem. Cranm. 227. "Justus Jonas was the friend and fellow-labourer of Luther and Melancthon, whose son resided long at Lambeth, and seems to have been the principal medium of correspondence between the Archbishop and the Lutherans." (Notes to Abp. Laurence's Bampton Lectures. 210.) The most Reverend author of these excellent sermons says, "That the doctrine of the Eucharist contained in this catechism is completely Lutheran, has never been denied." Perhaps, however, it would be more accurate to say that this Catechism maintains the corporal presence without attempting to define the manner of it, hence leaving a latitude for explaining that doctrine either upon Romish, or upon Lutheran principles. Cranmer, it should be recollected, denied that he had ever adopted Luther's opinion of the Eucharist. See Hist. Ref. under King Henry VIII. I. 354. |
