1 the preceding reign, had repeatedly urged the suppression. Ere a year had passed in the present, he obtained an order of the Council to forbid the processions with tapers on Candlemas day, the giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, and the carrying of palms on Palm Sunday; and, almost immediately afterwards, another order for the removal of images from the churches. The practices, which were to be abolished, he considered as resembling the festivals to heathen gods. If he has left us no especial illustration of this point, the similarity soon began to be traced by our divines, and by Polydore Virgil had been allowed in Cranmer's own time. It is briefly but forcibly shewn in a sermon, entitled Paganism and Papism paralleled, preached at the Temple Church in 1623 by T. Ailesbury, student of divinity; in his exposition of the Apocalypse by the profoundly learned Henry More; and very largely 1 Strype. 2 2 3 Though a rigid Romanist, he freely confesses the origin of several of their customs to be from the ancient Pagans. formity between Popery and Rector of Eyam, 1746. p. 4. Romanists admitted the fact. &c. p. 3. seq. Con Paganism by T. Seward, M.A. 3 M. Mussard published at Lyons in 1667 a very curious volume also entitled, Les Conformitez des Ceremonies modernes avec les anciennes, où il est prouvè par des autoritez incontestables que les Ceremonies de l'Eglise Romaine sont empruntées des Payens. This was translated into our language, two years after Middleton's Letter appeared, by J. Dupré. by J. Stopford in 1675, afterwards bishop of Cloyne, in his Parallel between Rome Pagan and Rome Christian in their doctrines and ceremonies. The celebrated Letter of Middleton from Rome, in later times; and disquisitions which have followed it, upon this interesting subject; are thus at least without the charm of novelty. 4 Polydore Virgil endeavoured, as the Romanists always do, to screen their absurdities under the sanction of Judaism; a very poor plea, supposing it true, to reduce the Gentile Christians under the bondage of those beggarly elements, from which the great apostle of the Gentiles, by the directions of the Holy Spirit, so often hazarded his life to deliver them. Seward, ut supr. 38. This point has been powerfully considered by a very learned prelate of the present day. "The parallel traced by Middleton, in his celebrated Letter from Rome, between the popish ceremonies and the rites of paganism, includes the use of oil, and of incense, and of holy water for lustration, the frivolous distinction of meats and of days, votive offerings suspended in temples, images, garlands, processions, &c. the burning of lamps and candles before shrines, pretended miracles and legends, with a multitude of other resemblances, which indicate beyond a doubt one principal source of the corruptions of the Church of Rome. It is remarkable however that Middleton's chief opponent, the author of the Catholic Christian Instructed, contends that he has referred to Paganism what properly belongs to Judaism; and he takes great pains to prove that most of the practices mentioned by Middleton are imitations of Jewish ceremonies. Doubtless there is much truth in the statement of this popish adversary: but his cause gains little by this mode of defence. He points out indeed a more venerable source of error: but his vindication supports the very argument I am maintaining; that the Church of Rome, infected with the love of this world, artfully palliated the cor But more extensive declarations of doctrine had now been formed, entitled 'Homilies, which remain to this day an unaltered system of faith. They are in number twelve. Of these at least three, if not a fourth, appear to have been written by Cranmer himself. If internal evidence had been wanting in support of this belief, the authority of nearly contemporary assertion exists. John Woolton, the nephew of the celebrated Alexander Nowell, was the author of several theological works in the reign of Elizabeth. became bishop of Exeter. Not long before he was advanced to the prelacy, he published, in He ruption by adopting rites once sanctified and established in the service of the true God, but which being adapted to a temporal kingdom, and to a carnal and less enlightened dispensation, are an evidence of a falling away from Christ, and of a decay of pure religion." Serm. at Chester, Nov. 5, 1826, by E. Copleston, D.D. dean of Chester, (now bishop of Llandaff,) p. 11. 1 Two printers were employed in the publication of them in 1547, Grafton and Whitchurch; the first in July, the other in August. 2 The authority, which follows, for stating that Cranmer wrote the three homilies on Salvation, Faith, and Good Works, I first submitted to public notice in the Declarations of our Reformers, which I published in 1818. Introduct. p. xiii. Dr. Wordsworth is of opinion that Cranmer wrote also the homily Of the Misery of all Mankind. Eccl. Biogr. iii. 505. I should rather attribute to his pen that against the Fear of Death, there being among the fragments of his composition, given by Strype, part of a discourse on this subject. 1576, The Christian Manual, in which he says, "What we teach and think of Good Works, those Homilies written in our English tongue of Salvation, Faith, and Works, by that light and martyr of Christ's church, Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, do plain testify and testify and declare; which are built upon so sure a foundation, that no sycophant can deface them, nor sophister confute them, while the world shall endure." The dioceses were now divided into six circuits; and by the royal appointment were to be visited by distinguished persons both of the laity and clergy, (in no instance exceeding six,) by whom abuses were to be rectified, and to whom were given a book of Injunctions principally renewing those that had been ordered by Cromwell, and the book of Homilies that had now been prepared. Of the former a copy was by them to be delivered to every incumbent, with a charge of strict attention to them; and of the latter, for the instruction of the people, a copy was to be placed in every parish church. That the New Testament might be better understood, the 2 Paraphrase of Erasmus, 1 Chr. Man. sign. c. iii. * The first volume of the Paraphrase consisted of the four Gospels and the Acts, and was published in 1548. Malet, who had already assisted Cranmer in regard to the churchservice, (see before, vol. i. p. 198,) and Udall, a canon of Windsor, both distinguished scholars and divines, are believed to have translated into English, was also directed to be deposited in the several churches, as soon as it should be received. Such were the substitutes at present for sermons; restrictions upon preaching being now imposed, on account of recent unprofitable controversies in the pulpit. To the admission of the Paraphrase and the Homilies objections were immediately made by Gardiner and Bonner. The former had been invited by Cranmer to join in the formation of the Homilies, and had not only refused, but had cautioned the archbishop against innovating in religion during the king's minority. The compilation being now shewn to him, he at once expressed his disapprobation of it, and in such a way, as to occasion his being sent to the Fleet prison; the charge against him being disobedience to the royal injunctions. Cranmer now entreated him to abandon the pertinacity under which he had acted, and to concur in the proceedings which by the members of the Council had been directed. Gardiner persisted in his opposition. He asserted that the Homilies contained false doctrine, especially in teaching justification by faith alone without works; and as he knew that Cranmer had composed the homily on the salvation of mankind, he scrupled not to charge him as the translated the greater part, and to have superintended, with the aid of Coverdale also, the whole of these paraphrases; the remainder of which on the Epistles appeared in 1549. |