A retrospect of the religious life of England; or, The church, Puritanism, and free inquiry

Front matter

Cornell University Library

A retrospect of the religious life of En

Cornell University Library

Preface To First Edition

The idea which possessed my mindj when I first sketched out the plan of this volume, was the desirahleness of embracing in a common point of view, the phenomena of the different religious parties, whose unintermitted strife and sharp contrast of manners and opinions have given such a deep and varied interest to the spiritual history of England, during the three centuries which have elapsed since the Reformation. In pursuiog this idea, I have tried to discover the governing principle and understand the characteristic working of each party ; to apprehend their mutual relation; to show how they have occasionally passed off into each other ; and out of their joint operation, to trace the evolution of a more comprehensive principle which looks above the narrowness of their respective views, and, allying itself with the essential elements of the Christian faith, may ia time perhaps devise some method of reconciling an unlimited freedom and variety of the religious life with the friendhness and mutual recognition of universal brotherhood. Such an idea it is more easy to conceive than to execute. The more I have read, the more I have felt the inadequacy of my materials for fuUy developing it; and

VI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

though every fresh inquiry has confirmed me in my general view, I am conscious, that, with ampler opportunities of research and more leisure for concentrated thought, T could have produced a more usefiil and satisfactory book. My hope is, that with all its deficiencies, it may still be of some service to that portion of society for which it was immediately designed.

What I here offer, is little more than a sketch — exhibiting the general outline and prominent features of the historical development of the religious life of England. I make no pretension to deep and original research. The facts recited or alluded to, are such as are famUiar to every student of our national history. All that I present of my own, is simply the conception of those facts ; the relation that I have ventured to establish between them; the principles to which I have thought they might be referred; and the inferences which they have seemed to me to yield. I have wished to find out, if I could, the meaning of our religious history. Whether I have in any degree succeeded, the reader will judge. I may, however, state, that I have endeavoured to take my facts from the most authentic sources accessible to me; and that the authorities immediately quoted, are those which I have either read or consulted myself.

Oujf practical English mind — so different from that of our French and German neighbours — concentrates its interest ou the present. It will very probably be asked, "Why lead back our thoughts to the disputes and struggles of our forefathers? We live in an age of light, and may be pardoned, if we wish to forget the history of their prejudice and absurdity." But is it aU prejudice and absurdity, which the religious history

Preface To First Edition. Vu

of the past reveals to us ? There is a wisdom and a Tirtue, which comes and goes with the fleeting generations of menj and which ia its everchangiag manifestations^ shaped though it be by the influences of the age^ it is always instructive and dehghtful to contemplate. We may be — I trust we are — ^ia a course of progressive advancement ; but the present is the daughter of the past—

and only as the present comprehends and wisely reverences that filial relationship, will she become the mother of a still more beauteous future.

The fanaticism which disowns the past, is not less ridiculous than the superstition of the antiquary which blindly worships it. The opeUj thoughtful miud, desirous to apprehend the great idea of providencCj takes a wide retrospect of the pastj that it may embrace the connection of ages, and discern their subordination to a common plan. Nothing has more contributed to keep up a narrow party feeling, than the limited field of vision on which the mental gaze has been usually fixed. The relations of diflerent religious bodies to each other — ^the controversies between them — the peculiarities of doctrine and practice distinguishing them — acquire an undue and absorbing importance that excludes the light of true wisdom, from their being looked upon as distinctions founded in the unchangeable nature of things, rather than as historical results, not without a relative value for the individual, and fit subjects for conscientious reflection and comparison, but of which the real nature and significance are only to be understood by reference to the circumstances in which they

Viu PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

originated. The revival of a more historical view of the mutual relationship of different churches, seasoned with a spirit of philosophical generalization — offers the fairest prospect of extricating our national mind from that abyss of hopeless sectarianism, in which our religion and our literature seem at times to be in danger of being for ever engulfed.

No history has yet appeared, so far as I know, of the general progress and development of our rehgious life up to the present day. To accomplish such a work adequately, would demand far higher qualifications than I can bring to it. This little volume must be accepted rather as an expression of my wish to see it competently undertaken, than as indicating the unpardonable presumption of attempting it myself. But an imperfect work, if it does not wholly miss its object, may sometimes help to put the general mind in action, and prove the incentive to works greatly surpassing itself. Should any such result hereafter ensue, I shall be perfectly satisfied with the effect of this publication.

Preface To Second Edition

The first impression of this work being disposed of, the publisher has undertaken to issue a new edition of more convenient size and at a reduced price; and the opportunity has been seized to subject the whole to a careful revision. All the more important statements have again been verified; errors pointed out or discovered in the first edition, wherever known, have been corrected : but it is probable, that in a work embracing so wide a range of historical particulars, not a few inaccuracies may have escaped the author's vigilance, for which he craves the indulgence of the critical reader. He has not intentionally let them pass unnoticed. Several passages have been re-written; and some amount of fresh matter has been introduced into the notes, which, for convenience of reference, have been removed from the end of the volume, and placed under the text to which they belong. An index of principal matters is now for the first time added.

The imperfection of form, as well as of execution, with which this volume is justly chargeable, has arisen in some degree from the occasional nature of its origin. To remedy effectually this inherent deficiency, would have involved a

X PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

re-casting of all the materials^ and required an entirely new work ; and for this I have at present neither time nor iaclination. I may, however, be permitted to remark, in reply to some friendly criticism on the first edition, that this small volume was never intended to embrace a complete ecclesiastical history of England from the Reformation, but only to develope three great tendencies that were the immediate result of that event. Hence the condition of the Roman CathoUc Church, which subsisted through the whole of. this period, as a latent residuum from a former state of things, has been wholly passed over. And for the same reason, the efforts and influences of the Moravians and Swedenborgians, as a religious element imported from abroad, and having no origiaal connection with the great Enghsh controversy, were not supposed to come within the proper scope of the present inquiry. This limitation should be kept ia view, to pronounce a fair judgment on the book.

J. J. T.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTEE I.

INTEODTJCTOET. pp. 1-28.

Sect. i. p. 1 — Eelation of the religious history of England to the general history of the Church. Sect. ii. p. 7 — Sketch of the external history of religious parties in England.

CHAPTEE II.

THE CHXTECH. pp. 29-87.

Sect. i. p. 29 — ^Difficulty of defining a Church. Sect. ii. p. 31 — Preparatory changes under Henry VIII. Sect. iii. p. 39 — The Eeformation of Edward VI. Sect. iv. p. 48 — Fixation of the constituent elements of the Anglican Church, after the accession of Elizabeth. Sect. V. p. 58 — General characteristics of the Anglican Church. Sect. yi. p. 61 — ^Erastian and Calyinistic Period. Sect. vii. p. 65 — High Sacerdotal and Eegal Doctrines, and prevalence of Arminianism, under the Stuarts. Sect. viii. p. 74 — Influence of Low Church principles after the Eevolution. Sect. ix. p. 82— Modem Period.

CHAPTEE ni.

PUKITAJSriSM. pp. 88-170.

Sect. i. p. 88 — Predominant Idea of Puritanism. Sect. ii. p. 90 — Spirit and Affinities of Lollardism. Sect. iii. p. 93 — Incipient Puritanic Movements. Sect. iv. p. 99 — High Presbyterianism \mder Elizabeth. Sect. v. p. 109 — Qualified Presbyterianism at the close of the sixteenth, and in the first half of the seventeenth, century. Sect. vi.

Xll CONTENTS.

p. 118— Independency, and the more extreme forms of Puritanism. Sect. Tii. p. 128— Eesnlts of Pimtanism under tlie Commonwealth. Sect. viii. p. 145— Influence of distinguished Teachers on the historical development of Puritanism : Baxter and Owen. Sect. ix. p. 158 Anabaptists and Quakers : Else of permanent ITonconformist Societies.

CHAPTEE IV.

THE CHUECH AND PUEITANISM CONTKASTED. pp. 171-192.

CHAPTEE V.

FEBE INQUIRY, pp. 193-315.

Sect. i. p. 193— Distinction between the independence of Eeligious Societies and the freedom of the Individual Miad. Sect. ii. p. 196 — Evolution of the different elements of Eeligious Freedom, in the course of the seventeenth century. Sect. ui. p. 200 — Eeaction against the doctrines of the first Eeformers. Sect. iv. p. 203 — Eise of Latitudinarian principles. Sect. v. p. 210 — ^Efiect of philosophical theories and scientific discoveries. Sect. vi. p. 218 — First School of English Unitarianism. Sect. vii. p. 230 — Influence of the writings of Locke. Sect. vui. p. 244 — Christian Eationalism after the Eevolution : Dissenting Academies : Character and position of Doddridge. Sect. ix. p. 267 — Character and tendencies of English Deism, or Freethmking. Sect. x. p. 286 — Influence of Hartley's philosophy : Eevival of the Unitarian controversy by Dr. Priestley. Sect. xi. p. 300 — Orthodox Dissent : Popularity of Channing : Influence of Germany : Powerful organization of Independency.

CONCLUSION, pp. 316-324.

A

RETROSPECT

EELIGIOUS LIFE OF ENGLAND.

Section I

RELATION OP THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OP ENGLAND TO THE GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

CoNPLiCT under some form or other seems an indispensable condition of social progress. The repose and noiformity so ardently desired by some theoristSj are the unequivocal signs, wherever they occur, of a stationary or a declining civilization. Exemption from opposition and questioning relaxes the motives to exertion and brings a torpor over all the faculties. This is especially true of the intellectual and spiritual life of man. Without antagonism — ^mental health, practical wisdom and the constant development of fresh triith are impossible. We have a proof this, i£ we compare the condition and influence of communities, Kke England, Holland, North America, and the Protestant States of Germany — ^where mental freedom has been largely enjoyed — with such countries as Austria and Spain, where the priest and the sovereign have combined to crush in its germ every rising of independent thought. Civil and religious freedom are essential to each other's existence. Where one is stifled, the other languishes ; and apart from their blended influence, neither commerce nor art nor genuine science nor a noble literature nor high na-

2 RELATION OF EELIGIOUS HISTORY OF ENGLAND

tional character can long endure. Whenever we are inclined to deplore the strife and the turbulence which mark the former periods of our history, and the divided state in which, after the contests of centuries, they have left our people at the present day — we should remember, that these things are the indications of an energy and a self-reliance, without which England could never have been what she is, nor occupied the same high place among the nations of theeaxth.

A right appreciation of the antagonistic tendencies, in whose balanced worldng a nation's vitality resides — supplies a key to the true reading of its internal history. And if our literature, the joint produce of Norman and Saxon influences, is rich, varied and original beyond any other in Europe — if our political experience abounds with ampler instruction, finer examples, and more fortunate results, than that of any society which has grown out of the feudal constitution of the Middle Ages ; — our religious hfe, which stands in a still closer relation to our national character, and, welling up from the deep fountains of the soul, has watered the roots both of our liberties and our literature — ^possesses features peculiarly its own ; exhibits struggles not exactly paralleled in any of the countries where the great battle of religious freedom has been fought ; and has terminated in a state of things, at once different from the limited, but, so far as it extends, impartial, toleration of some continental states, and the complete religious freedom and equality of North America.

The principles which distinguish Christianity from all previous religions, are — spirituality and mental freedom. In its original records no provision exists for the appointment of a priesthood, the determination of a metaphysical creed, or even the regulation of a form of social worship. The refinement and elevation of the human soul, through the power of faith

and love borne into it by the doctrine and the life of Christ

constitute the specific work of the Gospel. Everything beyond this, is extraneous, conventional, disciplinary — to be settled by considerations of time and place and practical expediencv. In a few words, Paul has described its true character-^ " where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." On the other hand, Heathenism in all its forms, and not less Levitical Judaism, identified religion with national laws and institutions, to which the worship and outward reverence of individuals were expected to conform. Beyond the recoeni-

TO THE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 3

tion of these national religions^ the boasted toleration of the Romans never extended. The rights of the individual conscience were overlooked, and seem hardly to have been suspected. In this reverence or disregard for personal convictions of religious truth, and in a practice corresponding to it, we discover an essential distinction between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of Heathenism.

But the vast machinery of the ancient superstition remamed, when the superstition itself was professedly renounced; and Christianity, already imbued with sacerdotal tendencies, slid into its abandoned forms and usurped its abdicated functions, and from them contracted not a little of the spirit by which they were infected. It cannot perhaps be denied, that in the confusion which attended the destruction of the old civilization, the restoration of priestly authority was unavoidable, and might be even necessary to reorganize the scattered elements of society. For ages the forms of Heathenism la,y heavy on the mind of Europe, and only here and there the faint pulsations of a true Christian life were perceptible.

This subjugation of the independence of conscience was not however effected without a struggle, which never entirely ceased. The last vestiges of the Donatist schism in North Africa; which was in principle a resistance to the advancing encroachments of episcopal domination^ were hardly swept away in the tide of Saracenic conquest, when fresh elements of religious excitement and ecclesiastical reform, which had long been silently fermenting, began to circulate actively in Europe soon after the age of Charlemagne. — Cherished by sectaries of various name but kindred principle — Waldenses, Cathari, Albigenses — amid the valleys of Piedmont, along the shores of the Mediterranean, and in the rising cities of the Rhine — they rapidly drew within their influence the young life and blossoming poetry of an awakening civilization, and prepared the mind of Europe for more extensive change. All these sects were distinguished by a spiritual and enthusiastic conception of Christianity, an aversion to the hierarchy, and

' The protracted conflict of the Donatists with the African hierarchy, bears considerable resemblance to the Puritan struggle in England — the parallelism extending even to the names which they delighted to give themselves, Deodatus, Deogratias, Quidyultdeus, Habetdeum, hie the appellations Praisegod, Accepted, Grodbehere, etc., assumed by Enghsh sectaries in the eeventeenth century. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xxsvii., note 95, with Milman's remarks.

b2

4 RELATION OF 'RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF ENGLAND

a denial of the claims of the priesthood— but above all by a profound reverence for the Scriptures, of which several versions were already current among them, and which they appealed to, as a standiag witness against the corruptions of the Church, and a faithful record of the spirit and prmciples of the primitive GospeP. This struggle between sacerdotal usurpation and the unextinguished sense of spiritual rights, runs through the whole of Christian history from the first estabhshment of episcopal jurisdiction ia the third and fourth centuries, down to the time of Wychffe, Huss, and Luther. It is, in truth, the prolongation of the original conflict between the principle of Heathenism and the principle of Christianity ; nor has it yet reached its termination.

The religious history of England exhibits only another form of this vital struggle, modified by our insular position and by our national character and institutions. The struggle with us differs from that on the continent, in being mainly a domestic and national struggle — not directed, as in Germany and Prance, (except for a short time and to a limited extent,) against a foreign power seated beyond the Alps, but iavohing a conflict of elements within the limits of our own nationality. Tn Germany and in France a similar contest did indeed spring up : but in the former country, it was practically settled by the Treaty of Westphalia^ ; in the latter, violently crushed by the despotic bigotry of Louis XIV. In England the dispute has been prolonged, with little change in the aims and principles of the parties, to the present day. This circumstance constitutes, I apprehend, the peeuHarity of our religious history.

1 On the free sentiments of the Troubadours and their brethren the Minnesingers on the other side of the Bhine respecting religion, their aversion to the Catholic clergy, and their friendly relations -with the sectaries of the time, compare Sismondi, De la Litterature du Midi, torn. i. ch. 5 & 6, with ' Lays of the Minnesingers ' by the late Edgar Taylor, pp. 99-101 & 210, and Eaynouard, ' Choix des Poesies Originales des Troubadours,' torn. ii. pp. Isi.-lsiT., and in the same volume p. 73 et seq., specimens of -the ' Poesies des Yaudois.' — Frederic Barharossa and his grandson Prederic II., distinguished patrons of these poets, have both been charged with encouraging the famous book 'De tribus Impostoribus ;' if indeed any such work then existed. See Bayle, art. Aretin, and Grotius, Oper. iv. p. 502. — Claude of Tm-in, whose prmciples are supposed to have found a shelter in the recesses of the Alps, where they were afterwards taken vip by the Waldenses, died in 840, and thus forms a link between the age of Charlemagne and these later sectaries.

- See the late Professor Smyth's wise and noble reflections on the Ti-eaty of Westphalia, aa terminating the grand religious warfare of Gtermauy. Lectures on Modem History, vol. i. pp. 336-43.

TO THE GENEKAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 5

For two centuries after the Conquest, our domestic history IS distinguished rather by the strife of races than by a contention of principles and classes. By some Becket has been extoUed as a protector of the people against Norman oppression ; but in heart he was a thorough churchman. It is difficult to believe in the pure humanity of his intentions. If he put himself at the head of the suffering Saxon population, and so acquired the reputation of a martyr in their cause^it was in the spirit of a priestly demagogue, to sustain more effectually the pretensions of the Church against the Crown. Towards the close of the Plantagenet line, in the course of the fourteenth century, under the advancing civilization of the long and brilliant reign of Edward III., the discussion of the rights of classes, and of the various social and religious questions connected with them, began to supersede the blind and passionate animosity which had once separated the Norman and Saxon races. It was now first, that the spirit of ecclesiastical reform, in unison with kindred movements on the continent, assumed an earnest and practical character. It is probable indeed, that the pride of Norman descent still predominated in the minds of the great feudal lords and of the higher clergy — prelates and mitred abbots — who sat with them in Parliament; while a Saxon love of freedom and a yearning after independence harboured in the bosoms of the commonalty. But these opposite feelings were becoming the characteristic of classes — the expression of conflicting principles rather than of national antipathies. In the infeurrectionary movements under Richard II., we find priests among the leaders of the populace, and reverenced as their ministers ; — a proof of the readiness of the people to blend the expression of their wrongs with the sentiments of rehgion, and of their susceptibility of better influences, had such been offered them. These movements were almost wholly political, produced by intolerable oppression — and terminated in no important result. The reformation attempted by Wycliffe originated in purer and more elevated motives ; and with him the history of English Puritanism properly begins.

Some one word is wanted to express, through its entire course of continuous development, that principle of resistance to the hierarchy which pervades our religious history from the middle of the fourteenth century to the present time. To avoid periphrasis, the term Puritanism, though strictly ap-

6 EEI^ATION TO GENERAL HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH.

plicable to only one period, may be adopted, as conveniently embracing the religious movements whicli preceded and prepared the revolutions of that period, and the modified but analogous effects which have followed them. The history of reUgious parties in England falls, in fact, of itself into three great and plainly distinguished periods : — 1st, that of Lollardism — the name given iu the fifteenth century to the principles of Wycliffe^ — extending from the reign of Edward III. to that of Henry VIII. ; 2ndly, that of proper Puritanism, from the Reformation to the extiaction of the Commonwealth on the restoration of Charles II. ; 3rdly, that of Protestant Dissent, from the Restoration to the present day.

If we compare these periods with each other, we shall find ia them only different manifestations of a common principle, tempered by the condition of society and the vigour of opposing tendencies. In the first — we witness resistance to an authority which no government had yet ventured to disown, and which seemed fast cemented in the general fabric of European civilization; — a struggle, which had nothing but individual conviction and some popular sympathy to uphold it, which the Crown, the Church, and for the most part the Parliament, combiued to crush. In the second — resistance found a sanction and a precedent in the conduct of the Crown and the Parliament. The question no longer respected the principle of resistance, but only the mode and extent of it. Encouraged by such high authority and instinct with all the energy of a new freedom, Puritanism, in the issue of the struggle, obtained a temporary ascendency over the hierarchy. In the third — we see Protestant Dissent advancing by painful steps and through many persecutions towards a legal toleration —

1 The name Lollard or LoHhard (from the G-erman lollen or hiUen, to sing or hum in a low, plaintiTe tone) was first given to a sect, which arose about the beginning of the fourteenth century in Cologne and other cities on the Khiae and in the north of Germany— ia consequence, it is said, of the mournful strains with which it was their practice to accompany the interment of the dead. In the fifteenth century, the name passed over into England, and was apphed by the Cathohcs to the followers of Wyohfle. G-ieseler, Ejrchengesch B 11 3 §§ 113 & 124. Guerike, Kirchengesch. §§ 158 & 162. ■ • . .

The Blench prophets who came over to England at the beginning of the last century, in their ecstasies or fits of rehgious excitement, made a strange hummmg noise. See Calamy's account of a Mr. Lacy, one of his flock who had jomed them ; Calamy's Life and Times, vol. ii. p. 97. Puller (TV i IS) derives the name from Walter LoUardus, "a German, many years before Wvcliffp' qvasi lolia in ard domini." j'>'""c,

HISTORY OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN ENGLAND. 7

with, efforts from time to time renewed to gain more freedom and rise to a complete religious equality. — In the ensuing pages an attempt has been made to discover the distiactive principles, and contrast the effects on our national mind and character, of the Anglican hierarchy and of Puritanism — to exhibit their mutual relation — and to trace out of their joint influence the evolution of a third principle, distinct from each — that of free religious inquiry. For the sake of the general reader, and to render future statements more intelligible — I shall occupy the next section of this chapter with a brief survey of the most important events in the external history of our religious progress during the three periods just enumerated.

Section II. Sketch Of The External History Of Religious Parties In England

I. Wycliffe was a native of the north of England, where the old Saxon character endured in its greatest strength and purity, and whence most of those men came who were distinguished at this period by the boldness of their attacks on ecclesiastical abuses and by their zeal for reformation^ He would have been a remarkable man in any age : but two influences appear early to have imbued his miad with a severe and earnest spirit ; — a close study of the doctrinal system of Augustine, which resulted in an anticipated Calvinism; and the desolation of the great European pestilence, which visited England when he was entering life, and produced a most disastrous and demoraHziag effect on society. Drinking deeply iato the spirit of his master, who also wrote under the wide-

• The spirit of reform and freedom in the TJniTersity of Oxford, during the fourteenth century, was most active among the "Northern men." Huber'a 'BngHsh Universities,' vol. i. §§ 41, 44, 45 (Newman's Transl.) The satirical poems of Longland and his imitators, reflecting on the monks and the clergy, which appeared about the same period, are written in the dialect and versification peculiar to the North. In the civil wars of the seventeenth century, Lancashire was the only district in England, except the neighbourhood of London, in which the Puritans succeeded in procuring for their Presbyterian discipline a complete estabhshment. Bolton was called by the CavaUers, the Geneva of Lancashire. Himter's ' Life of Ohver Heywood,' p. 35. Lancashire and the West Biding of Yorkshire are stiU the strongholds of Protestant Dissent,

8 SKETCH OF THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OP

spread shadow of impending calamity^ just before the overthrow of the Western Empire, he saw in the ravages of disease and the moral disorders accompanying them, clear indications of approaching judgment and the end of the world. His first publication was entitled, " The last Age of the Church." In these gloomy forebodings, and the earnest purposes of reformation which grew out of them, he was confirmed by strong sympathy with the mystics and prophets of the continent. For the work of a controversialist he was admirably prepared by the severe discipMne to which he had subjected his understanding, and by his skill iu the scholastic exercises of the period. The court of Rome, with characteristic policy — to counteract the popular movements of the time, and aUay the rising storm against the monks and clergy — ^had sent out among the lower classes vast swarms of itinerant preachers under the name of mendicant friars. The two orders of Franciscans and Dominicans, which made their appearance at the beginning of the thirteenth century, were rival candidates for the popular favour. It was against the ignorance and baseness of these preaching friars, that the earliest zeal of WycMe was directed.

So long as he confined his attacks to foreign ecclesiastics who monopohzed the best English benefices, to the grosser corruptions of the clergy, and to the exactions of the Papal ministers — ^he carried along with him the sympathy of the court .and of not a few among the aristocracy. He found a zealous patron in John of Gaunt ; and by Edward III., who subsequently beneficed him, he was sent on a deputation to confer with the papal commissioners at Bruges. He also acquired great celebrity as a teacher at Oxford. His doctrines spread into Bohemia^; and the Queen of Richard II., who came from that country, brought with her a disposition to respect his character and priaciples. Such influences threw a protection round the person of Wychfle ; and a man more selfish and ambitious might have turned them to his advantage, without wholly forfeiting his reputation for consistency as a reformer. But his honest, straightforward mind penetrated deeper into the evils of society, and was bent on their eradication. Much of the prevalent wickedness and irreHgion he traced to the hierarchy itself, the very principle of which his reasonings led him to condemn. He preached vehemently 1 CoUier, I. 586.