Art. VII.

CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ECLECTIC REVIEW.

SIR, IN your

Review for October, 1832, p. 293, I find the following passage. "The authority claimed (by the Church of England) in controversies of faith, was originally a forged authority, &c.": and by way of confirming this assertion, there occurs in a note, an extract from Lord Kames' "Sketches of the History of Man" to the following effect."The people of England must have been profoundly igno rant, &c."

Now, as I take it for granted, that your Reviewer has been misled by the authority of Lord Kames, and that the object of your Review is for the development of what you conceive to be truth, I do not anticipate any difficulty in prevailing upon you to reprint the abovequoted passages in your next number, with the following observations upon them.

1. So far were the good people of England from being "profoundly ignorant" of the existence of the Clause in the 20th Article which Lord Kames asserts to have remained unnoticed till the year 1724, that Archbishop Laud, and the other Bishops of his time, were accused of having committed the Forgery on which yonr Reviewer animadverts. It appears, however, that the Puritans were less scrupulous in their assertions respecting the time when "the spurious Editions" appeared "in which the Clause was foisted into the 20th Article," than Lord Kames is; for whilst the latter allows that these "spurious Editions" appeared soon after the year 1571, the Puritans manfully declared that the Clause in question was not to be found in any Editions of the Articles printed prior to the year 1628.

2. In answer to this accusation, the Archbishop pointed out four several Editions of the Articles all containing the disputed Clause, and all printed before 1628, (one Edition being as early as 1563): he produced an attested Copy of this Clause from the original MS. of the Articles; and maintained that the Clause said to be forged was to be found both in the original Records of the Convocation of 1562; and also in the Articles subscribed by the lower House of Convocation in 1571. As it regards the truth of the Archbishop's assertion respecting the Editions of the Articles printed before 1628, any person who will take the trouble may inform himself; and although the MSS. referred to perished in the Fire of London, and we are now, consequently, unable to verify Laud's appeal to them, yet it is an historical fact, that, at the time, these MSS. were open to the inspection of his accusers; were shortly afterwards in the possession of his enemies, and yet none ever ventured to impugn the validity of his defence.

3. Whilst Lord Kames asserts truly, that "In the Act xiiith of Elizabeth, an. 1571, confirming the 39 Articles, these Articles are not engrossed, but referred to in a printed Book, &c." he yet leaves his readers to suppose that the Book referred to was printed in 1562; whereas, (independently of its being next to certain that no Edition of

the Articles was printed earlier than 1563,) every body at all conversant with the subject is aware that the Edition referred to by the Act must have been that of 1571.

4. So ill-informed, indeed, does Lord Kames appear to have been respecting the History of the 39 Articles, that one cannot help suspecting him of a design to draw largely on the credulity of his readers when he penned the Note which it has been my object to examine. Any person who considers for a moment, must conclude that it is a thing which beggars probability to suppose that a reputed Forgery such as that which Lord Kames describes to have occurred, could have escaped detection until 1724. Without any certain knowledge of the fact, it might à priori be assumed that it was morally impossible for an Apocryphal Article to have eluded the notice of the Disputants of the 17th Century;-of men who brought to the discussion of the subject of Church Authority much more learning (though perhaps, not much more bitterness) than has unhappily sometimes marked that

discussion in more recent times.

Νον. 19. 1832.

One of your Readers.

We have not hesitated to give insertion to the above communication. And upon one point, we agree with our Correspondent; that it was impossible for an apocryphal article to have eluded the notice of the Disputants of the 17th century. Lord Kames was certainly mistaken in supposing that the forgery had passed unnoticed, till Anthony Collins revived the controversy. His "Detection of the Fraud of inserting and continuing that clause, "The Church hath power," &c. appeared in 1710; and went through three editions in the same year. The facts do not, however, rest upon his authority. Archdeacon Blackburne, in his Confessional, has a long note which would seem to justify Collins's representation, that the Latin clause was a forgery. A passage which is cited from Hales's Letter to Laud, the Archdeacon represents as equal to a thousand witnesses, that the first clause of the twentieth article, as it now stands in our present editions, was not held, by the most leaaned and judicious divines of those days, to be of the least authority whether it was found in Latin or English copies.' (Confessional, pp. 367-372. 1770.) In 1633, the authenticity of the clause was publicly debated in the Divinity Schools at Oxford, upon occasion of Peter Heylin's disputing for his Doctor's degree. Prideaux, the Professor, read the Latin article out of the Corpus Confessionum, published at Geneva, 1612, without the clause. Heylin produced an English edition with the disputed clause, but was unable to verify it by any Latin copy; and a Latin edition of the articles printed at Oxford in 1636, three years after, does not contain the clause.

6

After all, Laud's own Speech' supplies us with strong reason for doubting its authenticity. First, he affirms, that the Articles of Edward VI. and those made under Queen Elizabeth, differ very

much.' And those of Edward VI. not being binding, whether 'the clause be in them or out of them, it is not much material.' He then asserts, that he had a copy of the articles in English of the year 1612; and of the year 1605, and of the year 1593, and in Latin, of the year 1563, which was one of the first printed copies and in all these, the affirmative clause for the Church's power is in.' But, in the year 1571,-the very year in which the articles were first confirmed by Act of Parliament (13 Eliz. c. 12,) Laud admits, that the articles were printed both in Latin and English, without the clause, which certainly could not be done,' he says, but by the malicious cunning of that opposite 'faction. And he openly charged upon the Puritans, the foul corruption of falsifying the Articles. We do not, however, find that Laud produced one of the early copies which he said he possessed. And his altered copy' was transcribed by his own officer, from records in his own office, not then accessible to his Enemies. That none ever ventured to impugn the validity of his ' defence,' is an unsupported assertion. It was not by evidence, but by authority, that the controversy was cut short. That the Puritans should have falsified the articles, is at least as incredible as that Laud should have interpolated them. At all events, our Correspondent should have shewn, that the Christian Remembrancer (one of Mr. Hanbury's authorities) was mistaken in affirming that the Clause never was composed by, or exhibited in manuscript to a convocation.' Who then could have authority to interpolate it in the article?

ART. VIII. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

The concluding volume of Robert Hall's Works, containing the Memoir by Dr. Gregory, and Observations on his Character as a Preacher. By the Rev. John Foster, will be published early in the present month.

In the press, The Epistle to the Hebrews, a new Translation, in Sections, with Marginal References and Notes, and an Introductory Syllabus. Intended to facilitate the devout and profitable perusal of the Epistle, by elucidating its scope and argument. Fcap. 8vo.

The Author of "The Revolt of the Bees," and "The Reproof of Brutus," has in the press, Hampden in the Nineteenth Century, or Colloquies on the Errors and Improvement of Society." In 2 vols. 8vo. With Plates and Diagrams.

Collections from the Greek Anthology, and from the Pastoral, Elegiac, and Dramatic Poets of Greece. By the Rev. Robert Bland, and others. New edition, revised and corrected, with a great number of additional Specimens, the principal part of the former illustration being omitted, and the whole newly arranged in Chronological order under the names of the Authors. With short Prefaces and Notes, critical and explanatory.

The principal Memoirs, in Vol. 17 of Annual Biography and Obituary, will be those of Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton, Rev. Geo. Crabbe, Sir W. Grant, Bishop Huntingford, Lord Henry Paulet, Henry Liverseege, Esq., Dr. A. Clarke, Sir William Bolton, Muzio Clementi, Sir J. Mackintosh, Joseph S. Munden, Esq., Admiral Peere Williams Freeman, Dr. Walsh, Sir Alexander Cochrane, Charles Butler, Esq., Sir Walter Scott, Bishop Turner, Miss Anna Maria Porter, Earl of Donoughmore, Sir Albert Pell, Daniel Sykes, Esq., Sir Israel Pellew, Jeremy Bentham, Esq., John Syme, Esq., Lord Tenterden, Sir John Leslie, &c.

In the press, Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, from the Norman Conquest. By J. H. Wiffen, Author of a Translation of Tasso, and of the Works of Garellaso de la Vega, &c., with much curious unpublished correspondence, from the Reign of Henry 8th to that of Geo. 3d inclusive. Illustrated by Portraits, Views, and Armorial Bearings. In 2 large vols. demy 8vo. and royal 8vo.

The Life of Frederic the Second, King of Prussia. By Lord Dover. New edit. 2 vols. 8vo.

The Entomologist's Useful Compendium; comprising the best means of obtaining and preserving British Insects; with a Calendar of the times of appearance and usual situations of nearly 3000 species. By George Samouelle, A.L.S. New edition, 8vo. with Plates.

Inquiry concerning that disturbed state of the Vital Functions usually denominated Constitutional Irritation. By Benjamin Travers, F.R.S. Senior Surgeon to St. Thomas's Hospital. Vol. II. 8vo.

America and the Americans. By a Citizen of the World. 1 Vol. 8vo.

GENERAL INDEX.

VOL. VIII. THIRD SERIES.