OCR Text |
Show ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION People Were Loyal and Submissive to the Pope of Rome. . The Lamp, the organ of the high church branch of the Episcopal church and published at Gray-moor, Gray-moor, Garrison, N. Y., has had several articles from the able pen of Rev. Spencer Jones proving that Anglican church, in prereformation times, was subject to the spiritual jurisdicton oi the Pope. A correspondent in the Guardian recently asked: "Is it correct to say, as Mr. Jones so persistently persistent-ly does, that the Ecclesia Anglicana. before the Reformation Re-formation was in conscious dependence upon the Holy See in spirituals from first to last?" - Why "dependence?" It would be correct to say ''in union with the Holy See," but dependence is ail entirely different matter. Again: ''Were any of the prerogatives (he has just mentioned them universal jurisdiction, infallibility infal-libility in ex-cathedra definitions, sources of all ecclesiastical ec-clesiastical jurisdiction, vicegerent of Almighty God upon earth) were any of these prerogatives known to the church of England or to any part of the Catholic church before the tenth century ? Did any Catholic acknowledge them during the Great Schism?" . Note the Great Schism, wc know, from 1373 to '1417. Ihe answer to these questions is an appeal to history. WITNESS OF THE MIDDLE AGES. (1) "Before the Conquest it was understood that the right of an English metropolitan to consecrate conse-crate and supervise his suffragans was dependent on the pallium which he received from Rome. It was also understood that a bishop might appeal to the Pope against the sentence of his Metropolitan for Archbishop Brihtwald conceded the principle which Theodore had disputed. The Pope, acting in person or through representatives, could adjudicate upon the validity of an episcopal election. The Pope could requif a National Council to attest its orthodoxy by the subscription of decrees prepared pre-pared at Rome. He could also order the English church on pain of grevious censures, to amend its moral discipline and pass measures of reform; and his orders were respectfully received and executed. He was the acknowledged patron of religious houses; the property of the regular clergy, was under un-der his protection; his right to exercise this protection pro-tection was recognized by councils, kings and archbishops. arch-bishops. He settled the relations of the primate to the other bishops; without his leave no change could be made in the number or the site of English Sees. He. could send legates to hold councils; he could summon English representatives to attend his councils. It is true that the known precedents for some of these powers belong to the period immediately imme-diately before the Norman conquest. Edward the Confessor was more careful than his predecessor of his obligations towards Rome. But in the authorities au-thorities for his reign, and they are querulous enough, there is no hint that his submission to Rome was imposing new or unwelcome burdens on the English church. The burden of proof lies on those who would maintain that he began the subversion sub-version of recognized and ancient liberties." (Church Quarterly Review, April, 1903, pp. 139, 140. Particular references cited in support being Haddan and Stubbs iii.. 29, 72, 126. 131-5, 140-3, 362, 522, 536; Memorials 1 of St. Dunstan, p. 38; Angl. Saxs Cho. 1047, 1051.) ADDRESS. The Archbishop of Canterbury and His Suffragans to the Pope. A. D. 1412. j (Five years before the great Schism ended.) """" "To the most Holy Father in Christ and Lord John by divine Providence supreme Pontiff of the Sacrosanct Roman and Universal' church. This Js that most blessed See, which is proved never to have erred, by the grace of Almighty God, from the path of Apostolical tradition, nor has it ever been depraved and succumbed to heretical novelties. But she it is to whom, as being Lady and Mistress of other cliurches, the surpassing authority of the holy Fathers ordained that the greater causes of the church especially those touching articles of faith. should be referred for their final settlement and definition." (Wilkins iii.. p. 350.) (3) Grosseteste, (Epist: exxvii., p. 364). "The Lord Pope. . . .has the plenitude of power to judge all matters, great and small, of societies and" individuals, indi-viduals, great, or small, and to correct all that needs to be corrected, and to reform all that needs to be reformed." Rev. Spencer Jones, commenting on this array of facts, says: "Now in regard to the above may we not ask what more could a Roman Catholic say today? Indeed is it certain that he would put it so strongly as this ? Are not all prerogatives to which our correspondent takes exception, as if they were in 1870, evidently recognized in 1370? Could the archbishop and bishops in England have spoken more strongly before or after the Great Schism than they did speak actually during the Schism itself ? Universal jurisdiction, papal infallibility, divine assistance, Apostolcal tradition, all of them familiar terms in Catholic text books, are evidently here. And so with the strongest statement of all "Vicegerent of God" we find it in substance in the writings of Grosseteste: "Si Dominus Papa, qui a Jesu Chirsto, cujus vicem gerit, recepit plenitudinem protestatis St episcopus protestatem quam accepit a Domino Papa et a Jesu Christo per domini Papae tnedia-tionem tnedia-tionem SPENCER JONES. |