THE RELIGIOUS CABINET. January, 1842. From the Dublin Review. THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND THE LITURGY OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. 1. The Apostolical Jurisdiction and Succession II. Origines Liturgica, or Antiquities of the But Mr. Palmer is the author of other works besides these epistolary effusions, works of higher pretension, and more general interest, but at the same time advocating paradoxical statements and opinions, which we consider it a duty to controvert and expose. We have already broken a lance with him in a former number: we propose to break another with him in the present. In that the question was whether the Church of England reformed her T must have excited a smile in many of our readers to observe with what regularity, about once a quarter, Mr. Palmer comes for-self in the sixteenth century; in this it shall ward in the character of a polemic, and fires be whether she was, for many years after her a shot, in the shape of a pamphlet, at the po- origin, independent of the Church of Rome. pish champion, Dr. Wiseman. We have now The affirmative is maintained by Mr. Palmer: lying on our desk "A fifth Letter to N. Wise- he loses no opportunity of asserting it; he reman, D.D., by the Rev. William Palmer, M.A., peats it usque ad nauseum in most of his works. of Worcester College, Oxford." Five letters The English church, he tells us, was indein little more than the space of one year! pendent from the first: she retained that inWhat pertinacity of zeal, and fecundity of pen! dependence during the times of the AugusBut on this subject we have no right to inter- tines, the Bedas, the Dunstans, and the Anfere. We must not put in our sickle to reap selms: it was not till the twelfth or thiranother man's harvest. The letters are ad-teenth century that the bishops of Rome exdressed to Dr. Wiseman; and we shall leaveercised any jurisdiction over her; then for it to him to answer them, if he deem them three hundred years she bent to the yoke,-— worthy of the honor: being satisfied that, what-but at the Reforination burst from her thralever provocation may have been given, hedom, and recovered her independence. He will perform the task with that command of temper which becomes a Christian, and in that mild and honied phraseology which is to be expected from a bishop of Melipotamus. Τοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ γλώσσες μέλιτος γλυκίων ρεεν αυδή. VOL. I.-No. 1. finds, indeed, some difficulty in assigning the exact period when, and the manner how, that independence had been lost, taking the duration of a century for the first, and suggesting, to account for the other, that the popes may A tory judgment of the opinions prevalent among a people, from the language which their writers employ in treating of certain subjects. How, then, does Beda speak of the bishops of Rome, and the independence of the English church? In the language of Mr. Palmer and his friends? No: in language exactly the reverse. In allusion to the arrival of Augustine and the first missionaries sent by Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, he tells us that Grego have acquired their authority in this island by delegation from the English church, which she was of course at liberty to withdraw, or with the permission or consent of the English bishops, which could bind only for a time, or by the usurpation of the popes themselves, which it could never be unlawful to oppose and overthrow. Now this indecision and uncertainty cannot fail of provoking some suspicion of Mr. Palmer's accuracy. How comes it that he can ascertain the fact, and yet is un-ry ought to be styled "the apostle of the Engable to discover any of the particulars which lish; because, when he held the first episcoled to so important a revolution? But of this pal office in the whole world, and was placed we shall take no advantage; because it is our over the churches already converted to the bepurpose to show, to the full conviction of our lief of the truth, he made our nation, which readers, that there never was a time, from the up to that time had been enslaved to the worarrival of St. Augustine and his fellow-mis-ship of idols, a church of Christ."* Perhaps sionaries from Rome, down to the era selected Mr. Palmer never saw this passage; perhaps by Mr. Palmer, in which the English church he would not see it ;-for we are not sure that did not acknowledge the superiority and juris- he does not occasionally turn his back on an diction of the church of Rome.* To accom- inconvenient fact or statement, that he may plish this, we need only take the torch of his- pursue his course in happy or affected ignortory in our hands, and it will be seen that at ance of that which, if it were seen and acthe very first step which we make, the gorge-knowledged, might operate as a stumblingous fabric created by the imagination of Mr. block in his way. But, whether he saw it or Palmer will melt into air. not, this is plain, that it expresses the opinion It is fortunate that, in the outset of this in- of Beda and of his fellow-churchmen of that quiry, we can appeal to a writer against whose early age, who believed that not only was the testimony no objection can lie,-to one who church of Rome the first church in the whole candidly informs us of the sources of his in-world, but that the bishops of Rome were formation, and who is plainly under no bias placed in authority over all converted churchto lead him to the suppression or the disguise-es, and of course over the church of England, ment of the truth;-to the venerable Beda, a contemporary and a countryman, and the first scholar of his age in the western, probably in the whole Christian church. Beda wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English, from A.D.thodox ear; and that he therefore converts the 596 to A.D. 731, almost the very year before his death. Now we can often form a satisfac *As a century intervened between the extinc as soon as the English became aggregated to the Catholic church. We observe, indeed, that Mr. Palmer is very unwilling to make use of words which sound gratingly on an or commands and decrees, attributed by Beda to the pontiffs, into wishes, or advice, or invitations: whence it is not improbable that he may tion and renovation of Christianity in those parts also interpret this passage of a primacy of hoof the island occupied by the Anglo-Saxons, we nor, and not of jurisdiction. But the subterconsider the English church as an establishment totally unconnected with the British church; and fuge will not avail him. It is not said that shall therefore take no further notice of Mr. the bishop of Rome is placed over other bishPalmer's opinions respecting the latter, than to remark that occasionally he seems to quote from ops, but over all converted churches,—an exancient authorities upon trust; otherwise we can-pression which evidently implies an authority not explain how he came to refer to the testimo- of inspection and correction. ny of Eusebius (Dem. Evan. iii. 5.) or of Theodoret (tom. iv. 610), as proof that some of the apostles *"Quia, cum primum in toto orbe pontificatum preached personally in Britain. They merely gereret, et conversis jamdudum ad fidem veritatis assert that the knowledge of Christianity was esset prælatus ecclesiis, nostram gentem, eatenus spread by the preaching of the apostles, and pen-idolis mancipatam, Christi fecit ecclesiam.”— etrated from them into Britain. Bed. ii. c. i. The pontiff continues:-" Not only the bishops whom you may have ordained yourself, and those whom the bishop of London may ordain, but, in addition, all the bishops of Brit From the opinion of Beda we proceed to {fication of what the pontiff wished Augustine the facts which he relates. As soon as the to adopt, as Mr. Palmer by his translation king of Kent and a portion of his subjects had seems to insinuate, but a law which he enjoined been baptized, Augustine, by order of Grego-him to observe;* and that the powers comry, crossed the sea to Arles; where the metro-municated to him were, as will be subsequentpolitan of Gaul, also by the order of Gregory, ly shown, the same which were communicated consecrated him archbishop of the English.* by the apostolic see to all other metropolitans The new prelate, on his return, received from on this side of the Alps. the pontiff the pallium, and a letter, from which the following are extracts :-" We give you permission to wear the pallium in the English church (but only during the solemn celebration of mass), to the end that you orain (that is, of the ancient Britons, driven by dain twelve bishops in twelve several places, the invaders to the west coast of the island), who shall be subject to your jurisdiction, with you will have under your jurisdiction, by authis understanding, that always hereafter the thority of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; that bishop of London be consecrated by his own from your teaching they may learn to believe synod, and receive the pallium of honor from truly, and to live rightly from your example." this holy and apostolic see, in which I serve The lamentable state, both as regarded disciunder the authority of God. We moreover pline and morals, to which the British churchwill that you send to the city of York a bish- es had been reduced, probably in consequence op, whomsoever you shall judge proper to or- of the ruthless wars between the natives and dain, to the end that, if the said city and the the invaders, is described by Gildas, a Britain neighboring country receive the word of God, and a contemporary: and here we find Greghe may also ordain twelve bishops, and pos-ory subjecting the bishops of those churches sess the honor of a metropolitan: for to him to the superintending authority of Augustine, also we intend to give a pallium, if we live. in the same manner as the bishops of the EngIt is, however, our will that he be subject tolish converts. Mr. Palmer tells us that in your authority now, but that, after your de-such cases every neighboring bishop has a right cease, he preside over the bishops whom he shall have ordained, and shall owe no subjection to the bishop of London." To us this seems very like an act of legislative authority. Mr. Palmer admits that "Gregory was perfectly justified in directing Augustine as to the arrangement of the church just rising among the Anglo-Saxons: it was, however, a peculiar and extraordinary state of things, which did not afford any rule for other times." But he should remember that this was not a temporary arrangement, but a plan of church government, to be established both for the life-give you no authority, because, from the olden time of Augustine, and for the times which might follow it: that it was not merely a noti to interfere: but who ever heard of a neighboring bishop assuming on that ground the right to place a national church under the jurisdiction of a foreign prelate, and that, too, in virtue of authority possessed by himself of divine right, for such must be the meaning of the words employed by Gregory-"By authority of God, our Lord Jesus Christ." But this is not all. Augustine had consulted the pope, how he was to act with the Gallic as well as with the British prelates. The answer is,—“Over the bishops of Gaul we time of our predecessors, the bishop of Arles has received the pallium, and him we ought not to deprive of the authority which he pos ry, that the reader may understand the sequel. It was now manifest that the plan laid down by Pope Gregory could not be carried into effect. The church of York had no bishops subject to it: that of London had not even a Gallic prelates. Whatever is to be done by authority, must be done with the aid of the bishop of Arles, that we may not overturn the institution of our fathers. But all the bishops of Britain we commit to your care, that the unlearned may be taught, the weak strength-bishop of its own. The metropolitans could ened by persuasion, and the obstinate corrected by authority." not be ordained by synods which had no existence. On this account Edwin, king of Hence we are justified in concluding that Northumbria, and Eadbald of Kent, joined the authority committed to Augustine was ju- Paulinus and Honorius in a petition to the dicial and corrective; and that if similar au- pope, whose name was also Honorius, the obthority were not given to him over the Gallic (ject of which petition may be learned from bishops, it was not because Gregory did not the tenor of the papal answer:-"Therefore, claim the power of granting it, but because in conformity with the joint petition of you circumstances did not require the exercise of and of the two kings, our sons, by this our such power. Mr. Palmer will maintain that present precept, we, acting in the place of the this was an undue assumption on the part of blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, give the pontiff: that he possessed no right by him- this power to you, that, whenever it shall self, or by his representatives, to fix or disturb please God to call one of you to himself, the the internal arrangements of a foreign church. survivor shall consecrate the successor of the But the right is not the subject which at pre-deceased: for which we have sent a pallium sent we propose to discuss. We prove the to each of you, that, by authority of this our exercise of that right, on this occasion, in op- precept, you may be able to perform the ordiposition to his assertion that the pontiff's exer-nation in a manner acceptable to God. That cised no legislative or judicial authority in the which has compelled us to make these grants Cisalpine churches till a later period. to you, is the great distance by sea and land Augustine ordained three bishops,-Law-between you and us, that your churches may rence to succeed him, Mellitus to the see of not suffer injury from what may happen, but London, and Justus to that of Rochester. At that the devotion of the people entrusted to the death of Augustine the bishop of London your care may be augmented."* The reader ought to have become the new metropolitan; will notice the tone of authority in which this but Mellitus was driven into exile, and after-answer is written, and the reason assigned for wards succeeded Lawrence at Canterbury. the transmission of the pallium, in lieu of its Thus the office of metropolitan fell into abey-delivery in Rome into the hands of the archance for neither Lawrence nor Mellitus re-bishops: and then let him attend to the comceived the pallium, nor did either of them ordain any bishop. Justus, on the death of Mellitus, the only remaining prelate consecrated by Augustine, was translated to Canterbury; and to him the pallium was granted by Pope Boniface," with the power of ordaining bishops." He consecrated Paulinus bishop of York; who, having received the pallium, to act entirely on their own judgment."† consecrated, at Lincoln, Honorius, the suc-Thus, if any man will believe him, what by cessor of Justus.‡ This detail was necessa * Bed. i. 27, § 65. +Data sibi ordinandi episcopos auctoritate a pontifice Bonifacio."-Beda, ii. 5. Beda, ii. 17-19. Mr. Palmer is of opinion that the ordination of a bishop by a single bishop is null. What then does he think of this ordination of Honorius by Paulinus, at Lincoln? Whence could they have obtained other bishops ment of Mr. Palmer: "This amounted in fact to a dispensation from the canons, which the case would have furnished without any application to Rome; but the English church sought the pope's interposition, not that he possessed any patriarchal jurisdiction over them, but in order that they might not seem the pope is called a precept, by Beda a decree, "granting to one archbishop the power of con secrating the other, that it might not at every to assist? It is probable that Paulinus had received from Boniface the same power which Augustine received from Gregory. See Beda, i. 27. *Beda, ii. 18. † Palmer, Apost. Jurisd. p. 120. vince of Canterbury required the joint care of two metropolitans; rescinded, as having been obtained under false pretences, the grant made to the bishop of Lichfield; and ordered that this, his decree, should be published in a synod, and be subscribed by the English prelates of that province. But with respect to the other question, whether the archiepiscopal see ought to be fixed at Canterbury or London, he declared himself unwilling to deprive the successors of Saint Augustine of that primacy which they had now so long enjoyed.* Truly it seems to us inexplicable how any man, with all these facts staring him in the face, can persuade himself that the ancient church of England was, and acted as if she were, independent of the church of Rome. vacancy be necessary to go as far as Rome for powerful attempt was made to abolish the auordination," is in fact nothing more than a thority of the new metropolitan. Æthelheard needless form of dispensation from some un-of Canterbury proceeded to Rome; Kenulph, named canons, the petition for which does not the successor of Offa, and the bishops, sent imply any consciousness of inferiority in those messengers; and the pope, Leo III, was soliwho solicit it. With respect to the very in-cited both to rescind the former decree of his genious reason why the English bishops did predecessor in favor of Lichfield, and to denot dispense with themselves, or seek a dis-cide whether the see of the southern metropensation from some church nearer than that politan ought to be fixed at Canterbury or at of Rome, we shall only remark that most cer- London, according to the original plan of St. tainly it was not known to Beda; nor has Mr. Gregory. Leo, in return, justified the conPalmer deigned to inform us by what super-duct of Adrian, on the ground that he had natural channel it became known to him. been misinformed-for it had been representIn 664 Deusdedit, the fifth successor of St.ed to him that the enormous extent of the proAugustine, died, and Wighard, being elected by the church of Canterbury, proceeded for ordination to Rome, taking with him presents and letters from Oswy, king of Northumbria, and Egbert, king of Kent. There he died soon after his arrival; and Pope Vitalian, in conformity with the royal request, selected, as a proper person for metropolitan, Theodore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia; and after ordination invested him with authority over all the churches of the English. Thirteen years later it was decreed by Pope Agatho, in his synod in Rome, that the number of English prelates should be limited to twelve, including the archbishop; that these should be divided among the several kingdoms in proportion to the extent of each kingdom; and that no man should take upon himself to ordain them But Mr. Palmer's statement of the last but the archbishop, who had received the pal-transaction must not be allowed to pass unnolium from the apostolic see. By this ar-ticed. It is this: "The act of Pope Adrian rangement the bishop of York forfeited the was unlawful and contrary to the canons, and dignity of metropolitan; but sixty years after-as such was afterwards forbidden to have any wards it was restored to him by Gregory III;§force by our predecessors, the bishops of Engand not long after that a third archiepiscopal ( land, in the council of Cloveshoe, where also see was established at Lichfield by Adrian I, it was decreed that the primacy supported by at the request of Offa, the powerful king of the canons and the apostolic decrees should Mercia. Whilst Offa lived, the English bish-remain in Canterbury." Now this is a disops reluctantly submitted; after his death a tinguished specimen of the sophistry by which truth may be so disguised as to be made the harbinger of falsehood. There is not perhaps any single phrase in this extract which is not separately true. But by the suppression of some facts, and the convenient arrangement of "Ne sit necesse ad Romanam usque civitatem per tam prolixa terrarum et maris spatia pro ordinando archiepiscopo semper fatigari." (Beda, ii. 18.) Did not Beda then believe what Mr. Palmer so often denies, that the ordination of the English metropolitans belonged of right to the bishop of Rome? † Beda, iii. 29; iv. 1, 2. Spelman, Con. i. 159. Wilkins, Con. i. 46. § Chron. Sax. anno 735. Malm. de Pont. f. 153. *Wilkins, Con. i. 164-7. Malm. Gest. Reg. i. 119-27. † Palmer, Apost. Jurisd. 121. |