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THE

EPISCOPAL MANUAL.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

THE tree of life, planted by our Lord and his Apostles, continued for a few ages to flourish in its primitive glory, and to bear fruit for the healing of the nations. But soon that "man of sin" arose, “who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." The claims to supremacy which were at first but faintly urged by the Bishops of

a The name of Protestant originated in the year 1529, when a diet was held by the Emperor of Germany, in which the privileges formerly granted to those who differed from the Church of Rome, were revoked. The Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburgh, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Prince of Anhalt, together with the deputies of fourteen imperial cities, entered a solemn protest against this decree, as being unjust and impious. On that account they were distinguished by the name of Protestants, an appellation which has since been applied indiscriminately to all the sects of every denomination whatever, which have revolted from the see of Rome. b 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. See also Appendix No. II.

Rome soon found an additional pretext in political and local causes. And then, the superiority which had grown out of these circumstances, came to be enforced by the plea of a divine right, as attached to that see by the authority of St. Peter. These pretensions were violently opposed by the other Bishops, who appealed in vain to the undeniable fact, that no such pre-eminence had ever been conceded, or known in the church. The title of Pope, which, in fact, merely signifies the name of father, was equally bestowed upon the Bishop of Rome, and those who possessed the other considerable sees. About the seventh century, however, the prelates of Rome began to appropriate this title to themselves. And at length, the artful Boniface, who had resided at the imperial court, not disdaining to insinuate himself into the favour of the infamous Phocas, who had waded to the throne through the blood of the Emperor Mauritius, obtained from him, for the Romish patriarchs, the title of œcumenical or universal Bishop. This title was at first unaccompanied with any new powers. But the demands of ambition and power are insatiable, and the leaders of the Roman Church were so little contented with the honours they had already acquired, that Agatho laid claim to a privilege never before set up by the most extravagant of his predecessors, and asserted that the Church of Rome never had erred, nor could err, in any point, and that all its constitutions ought to be as implicitly received, as if they had been delivered by the divine voice of St. Peter. These lofty pretensions were resisted by the Bishops of the other sees, and by several princes, but the power of the Roman pontiffs was now too firmly lodged to be shaken by arguments and remonstrances. Henceforward, professing themselves to be the vicegerents of Heaven, they seemed resolved to invert, as far as possible, the declaration of the great Head of the

church, who had said that his kingdom "was not of this world." Intent only on their own aggrandizement, they moulded the church according to the principles of such a corrupt policy as might best secure and preserve this great object. It does not consist with the design and limits of this work, nor would it be useful, to pursue, with a minute attention, the various meanders of absurdity into which the exuberance of human folly, superstition, and wickedness was branched out, and which finally rendered it necessary for him who purchased the church with his own blood, to apply it to the great process of the Reformation. Suffice it to say, that almost every trace of her original features was obliterated, and her primeval grandeur confounded and lost beneath a mass of unmeaning ceremonies.

To correct these evils, the growth of that long and dark night, which shed so baneful an influence on the human mind, and to reduce the ecclesiastical system to its pristine form, was the task of the reformers. A work so vast and so delicate, required no common strength and skill. On the one hand, it was required to prune away all that spurious excrescence, which disfigured her form, and impaired her vigour; and on the other, to preserve unhurt the vital parts.

It is common with mankind, in their oscillations of opinion, to go from one extreme to another; and hence, some of the essential characteristics of the church have been rejected, because, having belonged to the Roman Church, they have been identified with popery. Our reformers were happily free from this weakness, and were desirous only of separating between those things which were truly erroneous and superstitious, and those that were truly scriptural and apostolical. The result of their labours is that admirable system of ecclesiastical polity, which distinguishes the Protestant Episcopal Church.

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