THE AMERICAN QUARTERLY CHURCH REVIEW, AND ECCLESIASTICAL REGISTER. VOL. XXI.- OCTOBER, 1869.- No. 3. ART. I.. - THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. No. 2. Ir is not strange that the word Catholic is regarded with affectionate veneration. It connects itself with the eternal verities of the Gospel. It links us by an Episcopal succession with the Apostolate, under the new dispensation, and with the priesthood under the old. It guards the Divine Order of the Church, and cherishes our faith in her great Creeds, and carrying us back to all her Past, encourages us forward also to all her Future. Nor is it to be wondered that in these days of high aspirations and large achievements, we are beginning to attain better views of the majesty of Catholicity, so that secondary conditions become lost in the light of universal truths. This very movement is a prophecy of the unity of Christendom. But men in gazing at the sun must not grow blind to the stars. The permanent is not always an antagonism to the transient. There is no necessary war between the primary and the incidental. Catholicity and Protestantism are not natural enemies. Nay, the latter has often been the daughter of the former. To array the parent and the child in opposition indicates feebleness of vision. The English Reformation was simply the eternal truth of Apostolic Catholicity, arising in noble protest against the temporary errors of modern Romanism. We have shown in a previous Article, that the Papal Supremacy is the VOL. XXI. 17 21 centre of this usurping ecclesiastical system. A Jesuitical organ, published only last November, under the immediate sanction of the present Pontiff, confirms all that was then asserted, affirming that to him only "can belong the coming Ecumenical Council," and that the distinguished personages then to gather from every part of the globe, will "recognize him as father, pastor, master, guide, in everything infallible, and to him subject their intellect, their will, their words, their acts, even themselves; to feel as he feels, to speak as he speaks, to reject what he rejects, to not willingly deviate one iota from what he prescribes." The views of Pius IX. on his supremacy, are very clearly expressed in his letter to the Archbishop of Paris, bearing date Oct. 26, 1865. He says: "This is in fact the perfectly logical illustration which the Angelic Doctor employs when he says, 'The Pope has the plenitude of pontifical power, even as a king in his kingdom.'" Again: "This right is so well known to all the faithful, that Saint Gelasius. another of our predecessors, wrote, 'There is not a Church in the world but knows that the See of the Blessed Peter has the right to loose what has been bound by the sentence of any Bishop, whosoever he be; for to that See belongs the right of judgment over the whole Church, on which judgment no one is permitted to pronounce; it is to that See the canons require men to appeal in all countries in the universe, and none has the right to appeal from its judgment to any other judgment whatever.'" Having previously traced the rise of this usurpation, and its overthrow in England, let us approach the doctrine of Transubstantiation, around which revolves the whole Roman theology, and, after briefly touching its origin, prove how thoroughly it was eliminated by the English Reformation. The words of our Lord instituting the Holy Communion, plainly embody two conceptions. He presented His Body that the Apostles might eat, and His Blood that they might drink. At the same time he enjoins that the bread and wine be received as tokens of remembrance. Here, then, we have the two characteristics of the Eucharist. In one aspect it is a spiritual feast. In another aspect it is a sacred memorial. Both views are beautifully and admirably combined in our own Communion Office. Now A it was to be expected that different persons, according to their peculiarities of temperament, and mind, and education, would exaggerate on the one side or on the other. Among the oratorical Fathers, you can find glowing and burning words rushing along in fiery tides of eloquence, which, literally interpreted, convey all that Rome claims, or Trent expressed, in regard to a corporal presence, and a veritable sacrifice. On the other hand, you discover writers who present the Eucharist in those bald, and naked, and severe aspects of mere memorial, which harmonize with the opinions of Zwingle, rigid and cold as his own Alpine snows. Each particular age, also, would lend its hue to its doctrine. As the world receded from the primitive truth and culture, and plunged deeper and deeper into the sensuous superstitions of mediævalism, we might expect that the theology of the Church. would be tinged with the darkness of the era. This result really occurred. These tendencies culminated in the ninth century, and found utterance in the works of Paschasius Radbert, who simply expressed as an individual, what Trent long after sanctioned as a Council. He denied in the Eucharist a mere spiritual communion with the Redeemer. He asserted that the body received a principle of life fitting it for the resurrection. He affirmed that the substance of the elements were converted into the very Body and Blood of Christ. We have his opinions in his own words: "If thou believe in the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God, thou must believe also in the miracle which is wrought by the same divine power through the words of the priest. The same Body is here present as that in which Christ was born, suffered, arose, and ascended into Heaven. Simply to avoid giving a shock to the senses, while an opportunity is furnished for the exercise of faith, the miracle is performed in a hidden manner, discernible only to faith, under the still subsisting forms, color, taste, and touch." The presentation of this view caused great excitement, showing that while it may have been prevalent, it was far from universal. Ratramnus and Scotus were the champions of the opposite doctrine, and under the clouds of medievalism was fought the very battle which raged amid the fires of the Reformation, and which has been resumed amid the blaze of our own century. Thus the human mind, moving in recurring cycles, simply repeats its own |