OF THE CHURCH UNDER ULTRA-PROTESTANTISM.

207

but there must have been an analogy between the state of the two countries, or there could have been none between the old Catholic ritual and the first temple, and the Prayer Book and the second temple -an analogy which is obvious to every considerate and thoughtful mind, which is not perverted by UltraProtestantism.

Precisely the same comparison between the two temples which I have so much insisted upon, was no less learnedly and eloquently adduced by the next speaker, William Pye, the Dean of Chichester. He declared that the Christian States had been overthrown to the very foundations, by the reformers; and rejoiced to see the day, as we do, when he trusted that the flock of the reformers would be entirely overthrown.* The Archdeacon of London eulogized at great length the high character, attainments, and learning, of the Members of the Convocation before him. Weston returned thanks for his election as Procurator, in a speech full of deep interest and eloquence, such as might safely be printed now, as one of the Tracts for the Times-he also adopts our own metaphor that the restoration of the old ritual was the re-building the Church of God. He, like us, does not condescend to talk as an Ultra-Protestant, of the value of the souls of men, of the power of the Scriptures to give to men the knowledge of God—of the use of the Church as one only of the divinely appointed means of grace-of the Omnipresent God,

* See his Speech in Strype, Ecc. M., p. 43—1553.

208 WESTON'S SPEECH IN THE CONVOCATION OUGHT TO

blessing the souls and hearing the prayers of his people, crowning the preaching of the Holy Word with his converting and purifying grace, and by means of His Holy Omnipresent Spirit, sanctifying his sacred word by bringing all things to the remembrance of his people. No more of this wretched puritanical Ultra-Protestantism is to be found in the speech of the Prolocutor Weston, than is to be found of similar matter in our own dear lucid, intelligible, fascinating pages. Weston speaks exactly as we do of the ancient doctors of the Church, of the reverence shewn by Constantine to the Bishops, of the Holy Chrysostom, of the dignity and authority of the Clergy. He speaks of the Prayer Book as stuffed with blasphemies and stored with errors, which, under the name of Religion, took away Religion by diminishing the Sacraments, and condemned the whole world. It is impossible that our sentiments could be more accurately expressed than in the words of Weston. They are, indeed, the very counterpart of my own, when I say, that the Reformation disturbed the peace and infringed the unity of the Christian body.* I cannot but love this man.

Four days after this speech in the Convocation, he preached at St. Paul's Cross, and called upon the people to pray for the souls of the departed. "You shall pray," he said, "for all them that shall be departed, that be neither in heaven nor in hell, but in a place not sufficiently purged to come to heaven,

*British Critic, No. 59, p. 1.

BE PRINTED NOW, AS A TRACT FOR THE TIMES.

209

*..

that they may be relieved by your devout prayers.' No Tractarian British Critic could have spoken more plainly. The manner, too, in which this learned theologian defended the doctrine of an actual sacrifice in the Eucharist against the Ultra-Protestants Bradford, Ridley, and Cranmer, deserves our highest commendation. He agrees with us in each of the three principles which we are endeavouring to commend again to the nation-dislike to our Prayer Book as imperfect, prayers for the dead, and the doctrine of the actual sacrifice, and, therefore, we must approve of him. The whole of his speech at the Convocation is given in the records of Strype. We are confirmed, too, in this estimate of Weston, by observing that Bonner in his concluding speech, spoke of him in the same manner, as learned, ingenious, eloquent, Catholic, and good-as worthy of all praise and acceptable to all degrees. Such were the speeches at the opening of this august Convocation. The acts of the Synod were such as we might have expected. Weston proposed that they should begin the business, for which they were summoned, by condemning the Prayer Book, especially the articles which were contrary to the Sacrament of the Altar. The discussions which ensued-the disputes on Transubstantiation, on substance, form, shape, accident, accidental substance, presence, symbol and real presence, may be read in Foxe† and Burnet. The

* Foxe, vol. vi., p. 541. + Vol. vi., p. 395, &c.

Part 2, b. ii., p. 265, &c.

210

CONDUCT OF BONNER BEFORE THE

conclusion of the debates was the resolution to restore the antient doctrines and ritual. The acts which passed in the Parliament were founded, as they ought to have been, on the decisions of the Convocation. On the 13th of December, the Queen, omitting in the mandate the title of Supreme Head of the Church, which had been so sacriligiously assumed by her father, commanded Bonner to dissolve the assembly.

Nearly one whole year elapsed between the complete change in the national religion, which was thus effected by law, and the public reconciliation of the nation and the national Church to the See of Rome. During the whole of this period no acts of great severity took place. No one was burnt for his religion. The Ultra-Protestants, who eventually suffered the punishment of vivicomburation, and who were burnt alive for their obstinacy, more than for their original heresy, were now treated by Bonner with comparative indulgence. I shall briefly examine his conduct during this period. We shall see that my friend Froude is fully justified in expressing his admiration of this illustrious Prelate. We will consider his conduct, at this period, to his prisoners, before it was found necessary to exact more stringent laws after the reconciliation with Rome to extirpate heresy ; 'together with his proceedings as a Bishop, his speeches on the Priesthood at the next Convocation, and his visitation of the Diocese of London.

With respect to his treatment of his prisoners, we shall find that though he was so much exasperated

RECONCILIATION OF THE NATION TO ROME. 211

against them after the solemn act of reconciliation with Rome, that he used, as we shall see, more se vere language than I can altogether approve;

duct towards them at the beginning was always kind and gentle, though his words were sometimes severe and harsh.

One of the first duties of a Bishop is obedience to the public law, and the enforcement of the same obedience in others. In consequence of the tumult at St. Paul's Cross, when a dagger had been thrown at the preacher, the Queen had commanded, in her regard for the public peace, that all preaching should for a time be prohibited. Now, the Ultra-Protestants consider preaching to be the chief means of building up a Church, and of bringing the souls of men, "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." They constantly refer to the words of the apostolic commission, and deem the preaching of the Gospel, not the administration of the Sacraments, to be the first, primary, and allimportant duty of the Clergy. We, the Tractarians, on the contrary, esteem preaching as a means of grace, necessary only when the Church is in a weak and languishing state :* as an instrument, in Scriptural language, which, to say the least, has never been much recommended in Scripture, and which the great teachers of Heathen morals esteemed but little useful for their purpose. As Socratesevinced a jealous apprehension of rhetoric, so do we. We,

*Tract 87, ut sup.

Р