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Vol. VIZE.—WN
THE CATHOLIC HERALD,
: IS PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
M. FITHIAN,
No. 61 North Second Street, Philadeiphia.
Terms,—Three Dollars per annum, payable half yearly
zn advance. Five Dollars will be received for 2 copies, or 1
copy for two years. All arrearages must be settled prior to
ordering a paper to be discontinued. “All Communications,
except from Agents, or Subscribers enclosing remittances,
must be post paid, “and addressed “’Lo the Editor of the
Catholie Herald, Philadelphia, Pa.”
Doctry,
VERSES ON AN EVENING VIEW OF ‘THE RUINS ‘OF
LINCLUDEN ABBEY '
Ye holy walls, that still sublime
Resist the crumbling touch of time;
‘How strongly still your view displays
‘The piety of ancient days! :
‘As through your ruins hoar and gray—
Ruins yet in beauteous decay, —
"Phe silvery moon-beams trembling play;
‘The forms of ages long gone by
Crowd thick on Fancy’s wondering eye,
Afd wake the soul to musings high.
F’en now as lost in thought profound,
I view the sotema scene arouad,
And pensive gaze with wistful eyes—
‘The pas
Again the deme, in pristine pride,
Lifis high its roof and arches wide ;
On which enwrought, the eye may trace
Each ornament ef Gothie grace. j
he high arched windows paintéd fair,
soos Show many: a saint and martyr theres... 5
As on theit slender forms I gaze, ”
returns,ithe present flies,
Methinks they brighten to a blaze!
With noiseless step, and taper bright,”
Whatare yon forms that meet my'sight?
Slowly they move while every cye
Is heavenward raised in ecstasy. >,
“Lis the sofl, spotless, vestal train,
That seek in prayer the midnight fane;
And liark!—what more than mortal sound
* Of music, breathes the pile around
"Tis the soft chaunted choral song,
Whose tones the echoing isles prolong;
Till thence returned, they sofily stray
G'er Clondin’s wave with fond delay ;
Now on the breeze of. night swells high,
And now in fainting murmurs die.
The boatmen on Nith’s gentle stream,
‘That glistens in the pale moon-beam,
+ Suspend their dashing oars, to hear 5
‘The holy athem loud and clear;
Each worldly thought awhile forbear,
And murmur fortb a half heard prayer,
Bat, as I gaze, the vision fuils,
Like frost work touch'd by southern galese
The altar sinks—the tapers fade,
And all the splendid scenes decayed!
In window fair, the painted pane. ,
No longer glows with holy stain,
Lut through the broken space, the gale
Breathes chilly frotn the misty vale.
The bird of eve flits sullen by
. Her home, these aisles and arches high,
The cheral hymn, that erst sv clear,
Broke sofily sweet un fancy’s cary...
Is drowned amidst her mournful scream
‘Phat breaks the magic of my dream,
Roused by the sound—I start and see
‘The ruined, sad reality ! W. J. We
‘ -* ‘These picturesque ruins, which are only at a short walk from
Damfries, in the south of Scotland, where the favorite place to which
+> the poet Burns retired from the bustle of the town, und produced
some of the happiest of his effusions. .
: Cueerrutness.—David Hume declared he would
rather possess a cheerful disposition, inclining always
to look on the bright side, than, with a gloomy mind,
be master of ten thousand a year.
From the Dublin Review. «
DID THE ANGLICAN CHURCH REFORM
HERSELF?
In our last number, the reader has seen the result of the
Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII, The papal su-
premacy, stigmatized as an intolerable tyranny, was sup-
pressed, and astill more intolerable tyranny, under the name
of the king’s supremacy, was established.
On the 271th of January, 1547, Henry died, and was
succeeded by his only son Edward, little more ‘than
nine years old. ° From that moment the Reformation
proceeded rapidly, without interruption or impedi-
inent.. There was no longer amonarch on the throne,
whose theological | ledge or prejudice keptin awe
the spirit of innovation ; the headship of the: Chureh,
with all its duties and ‘éares, all its powers and prero-
gatives, had fallen on ‘a child’ and that child was a
mere puppet in the hands of/ the metropolitan and his
associates of the council,—all'of them patrons of the
new learning, as it was called, either through belief in
its doctrines, or the expectation of profit from its ascen-
aney. Cranmer could now'command, even while he
appeared only to obey 3 he. could enjoin in the name
of the sovereign what would have been rejected by the
episcopal bench, had it come to them’ under no other
authority than his own. His first step was to draw
them into a recognition of the same spiritual supremacy
jin the young prince, which they had before admitted in
his father." On the ground that his own commission
had expired with the monarch who gave it, he solici-
ted and obtained from Edward another commission
within a week from the proclamation of the new sove-
reign. His example proved to his brethren what was
expected from them; and the successors of the apostles
crowded round the boy on the throne; acknowledging,
as their leader had done, that he was ‘the only Soares
of all manner of temporal, atid “spiritual jurisdiction
within the “realm,” and receiving from his hand new
commissions, withthe reward of their powers, in the
very same words; which, as we have already noticed,
so deeply shocked the orthodoxy of Mr. Palmer in the
case of Bonner, in the last reign.’ The same conse-
quences followed, ‘I'o probe ‘the sincerity of the bi-
shops, they were suspended from the exercise of their
jurisdiction, till the king should think proper to restore
it; and several classes of cormmiésioners, mostly laymen,
were appointed to visit their different diocesses.. In a
short time, injunctions with respect to images, cere-
monies, holidays, and Church service, were issued in
the name of the head of the Church’; inquisitors of
heretical prayity were commissioned by him; illegal
courts were established for the deprivation of refractory
prelates; vacant benefices and bishopries were filled
with professors of the “ new learning ;” a reformed
manner ofadministering the sacrament was ordered to
be observed ; the old liturgy was superseded by a new
one; the old ordinal by a new one; the old articles of
doctrine by new ones 5 and six iyears later, when Ed-
ward died, nothing was wanting’ to complete the Refor-
mation but anew code of canon law; and that was
ready for the press, but bad not yet received the king’s
signature or royal approbation, :
By comparing the state of the English Church at the
accession of Henry, with the state of the Church at the
death of Edward, we should be able to judge, whether
both can, with any appearance of reason, be taken for
the same Church; whether the Reformation in England
was only (that we may return tothe elegantillustration
of Dr. Hook,) the washing of a person’s face’ in the
Morning, or in reality the substitation of one individual
for aiother, with very: different! figure, features; and
complexion. . t :
72
It isno easy matter to discover what is requisite, .in
the opinion of. the Oxford teachers, to constitute the
identity of a Church, Locality is out of the question;
if that were sufficient, the Presbyterian Church of Scot-
land at the present day would be the same with the pre-
latie Church of Scotland of Catholic times.’ ‘To us it
appears, that, since a certain form of governmet, and
of worship, and of doctrine, is essential to the existence
ofevery Church, sameness of government, and worship,
and doctrine, are requisite to establish the identity of a
local Church at different periods. | Certain we are, that
j
Philadelphia, Thursday, August 27, 1840, © Whole Number 398
when no such sameness in any one of these three
branches has been suffered to remain, the so-much
boasted identity will, in the judgment of every reasona-
ble man, have also ceased to exist.” a
Ist. Now, then, with respect to Church govern-
ment:—the Church of England, at the commencement
of Henry’s reign, admitted in the bishop of Rome, a
primacy of order and jurisdiction throughout the Ca-
tholic Church, and consequently within this realm; the
Ciurch at the close of Edward’s reign had abjured the
spiritual supremacy of the pontiff, as an usurpation and
a tyranny ; and had transferred it to the erown, who-
Soever might wear that crown, young or old, male or
female, infidel or believer. .In the former Church: it
was acknowledged that the bishops. inherited from,
Christ the spiritual authority requisite for the govern-
ment of their respective dioceses, and that they were’
bound in duty to exercise it independently of any tem-_
poral authority. In the more recent Church, the bishops
were the mere creatures of the crown, appointed like:
civil officers by patent. , The instrument. ran in these.
words :—** We name, make, create, constitute, and de-
clare, N. bishop of N. to have and .to hold to himself °
the said bishopric during the term of his natural ‘life,
if for so long a time he behave himself ‘well therein 3
and we empower him to confer orders, to institute to,
livings, to exercise all manner of ecclesiastical jurisdie-
tion, and to do all that appertains to the episcopal or.
pastoral office, over and above the things known to.
have been committed to him by God in the Scriptures,’
in place of us, in our name, and by our royal “autho-
nity.” He was next consecrated after a new form, de-|
vised by the archbishop, a form, however, the validity
of which was warmly disputed ; and then suffered to
enter on his episcopal duties, but still liable ‘to be sus-
pended at any moment from the exercise of his autho-
rity, at the pleasure of the royal visitors, and under the
e obligation of conforming, gad of making others con-
forta, to any injunctions’ op | spititual. matters, whiels
might be delivered to him asemanating from the head
of the Church. With bishops of ‘this description, it is
plain that the whole government of the Church was in
the hands of those who’ had possession of the infant
king. “ j : sO
znd. Sameness of worship. ‘The old Church fol-
lowed, in the public worship, certain well known,
forms, which had been in constant use for many centu-
ries, In the new Church, every thing was altered.
The ancient ceremonies were with very few exceptions —
abolished 5 the habits of the officiating ministers were
thrown aside, the service was read from another part of
the church, the altar was turnéd into a table, the former
ordinal was superseded by a new one, and the sacrifice
of the mass, though'authorized at first, was expelled,
to make room for a new liturgy.’ Wehave no concern
here with the merit or demerit of these changes ; our
object is merely to remind our readers that they were
made, and that of course the sameness of worship was
destroyed. In virtue of an order with the royal signa-
ture, a book of common prayer was also composed, the
king recommended itto the notice of thelords and com-
monsin parliament ; both houses joined in attributing
it to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, ‘and the use of
itin every church was enjoined, and Opposition to it
forbidden, under penalties increasing in amount: for
every repetition of the offence. ‘The next year it was
republished with a few alterations; still it did not satisfy
the reforming zeal of Bucer, Peter Martyr, John Alasco,
and other foreign divines, whose influence over the ac-
commodating mind of Archbishop Cranmer Mr, Pale
mer feelingly deplores ; and in less than four years it
came forth again in a new edition, with more important
alterations, which caused it to differ. still more widely
from the old liturgy, and from every other liturgy that
had ever existed, either in the western or the eastern
Chureh. Prayer,for the dead was now dropped out
of the communion service, and of the office for burial ;
several unctions and ceremonies in the administration
of baptism, and confirmation, and the visitation of the
sick, were omitted ; and great care was taken to ex-
clude from the liturgy the scveral allusions which it
still retained to the real presence of Christ in the eucha-
tist. In this shape the book was republished, and en-
joined to'be used for the daily service. Certainly it
+
beer ee ares HO Rae ye cae SRP NF LMYy cna pt
would be difficult to devise two forms of worship more