FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND. 319 





The President in the course of the year par- 

 <lo!u-<l .-i largi- iiiimhtT of Communists. Up to 

 Julv -I'.' had IUM-II pardoned, the petitions in 

 tlif cases of 208 had been rejected, and 199 

 others awaited consideration. On July 26th 

 tin President granted 127 and on November 

 Tnli .V2 additional pardons. 



In March the country was visited by severe 

 Btorms and inundations. The Seine had risen 

 t.-n t't-i-t higher than in 1872, causing extensive 

 inundations in the suburbs of Paris. All the 

 large streams between Paris and the frontier 

 were out of their banks, causing the country 

 for miles around to be flooded. 



FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. The 

 following Confession of Faith has been adopt- 

 ed by this Church : 



Declaration of Principles of the Free Church of Eng- 

 land^ in Union with the Reformed Episcopal Church, 

 adopted at Convocation held in London, June, 1676. 



1. The Free Church of England, holding " the 

 faith once delivered unto the saints," declares its be- 

 lief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Tes- 

 tament as the Word of God, and the sole rule of faith 

 and practice ; in the creed " commonly called the 

 Apostles' Creed ;" in the divine institution of the 

 sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; and 

 in the doctrines of grace substantially as they are set 

 forth ra the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. 



2. This Church recognizes and adheres to Epis- 

 copacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient 

 and desirable form of church polity ; but, for the 

 avoidance of any possible misunderstanding, it here- 

 by emphatically declares its repudiation of the Rom- 

 isn dogma of apostolical succession in the ministry 

 as involving the transmission of spiritual powers. 



8. This Church, retaining a Liturgy wnich shall 

 not be repressive of freedom in prayer, accepts the 

 Book of Common Prayer as revised and recom- 

 mended for use by the Convocation of the Free 

 Church of England. 



4. This Church condemns and rejects the following 

 erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God's 

 Word: 



(1.) That the Church of Christ exists only in one 

 order or form of ecclesiastical polity. 



(2.) That Christian ministers are "priests" in an- 

 other sense than that in which all believers are a 

 " royal priesthood." 



(8.) That the Lord's Table is an altar on which 

 the oblation of the body and blood of Christ is of- 

 fered anew to the Father. 



(4.) That the presence of Christ in the Lord's 

 Supper is a presence in the elements of bread and 

 wine. 



(5.J That regeneration is inseparably connected 

 with baptism. 



6. This Church, in 5tR public worship, and in 

 preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, is 

 distinctly opposed both to sacerdotalism and ration- 

 alism. 



At the Quarterly Meeting of the Council of 

 the Free Church of England, held February 

 8th, the following resolution was adopted with 

 reference to the form to be used in the conse- 

 cration of bishops : 



Whereas, The Free Church of England professes 

 to be, and is, an Episcopal Church, and circumstances 

 render it desirable ana expedient that this principle 

 hould be more clearly defined and expressed, it 

 Is hereby resolved that the future bishops of this 

 Church shall he consecrated or set apart to their 

 office in accordance with the form of Consecrating 



a Bishop as revised and set forth by the Second Qcn 

 oral Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, and 

 that it be a special recommendation of the < 

 to Convocation that at the consecration of future 

 bishops of the Free Church of England a consecrated 

 bishop or bishops, and three or more presbyters, be 

 invited to conduct the ceremony of consecration. 



A Convocation of the Free Church of Eng- 

 land was held at Christ Church, Teddington, 

 beginning August 15th. Bishop Cridge, of the 

 Reformed Episcopal Church, was present, and 

 was greeted with a resolution of welcome. He 

 delivered an address, in which he gave a re- 

 view and a definition of the position of the 

 Reformed Episcopal Church and of the Free 

 Church of England, as contrasted with the 

 ecclesiastical pretensions and prerogatives of 

 the Anglican Church and the bodies in com- 

 munion with it. The Rev. Bishop Price, hav- 

 ing been some time previously elected bishop 

 of this Church, was consecrated in that office, 

 August 15th, with the laying on of hands by 

 the presbyters present, assisted by Bishop 

 Cridge. The name of the Rev. John Sugden 

 was presented to the convocation by the Coun- 

 cil of the Church, as having been nominated 

 by them for the office of bishop. The nomina- 

 tion was approved by the convocation, and 

 Bishop Sugden was consecrated August 20th, 

 at Christ Church, Lambeth, with the laying on 

 of hands by the presbyters present, assisted by 

 Bishops Cridge and Price. 



FREILIGRATH, FERDINAND, a German 

 poet, born in Detmold, June 17, 1810; died in 

 Canstatt, March 18, 1876. Up to his fifteenth 

 year he visited the gymnasium in his native 

 town, but after that devoted himself to a mer- 

 cantile business in Soest, in Westphalia. His 

 leisure hours he devoted entirely to the study 

 of history and natural history, and of French 

 and English literature. From Soest he went 

 to Amsterdam, and then to Barmen. In 1838 

 he left the mercantile career, encouraged by 

 the success with which his collected poems 

 met, which were published in 1838 in Stutt- 

 gart. His early works, chiefly descriptions 

 of life in the tropics, showed a wonderful 

 power of imagination, and rapidly gained for 

 him the popular favor. In consequence of 

 Herwegh's celebrated letter to the King of 

 Prussia, Freiligrath published his poem " Ein 

 Brief," in which he attacked Herwegh, and 

 which the latter answered by his poem " Par- 

 tei." In 1842 Freiligrath received through 

 the favor of the King of Prussia an annuity of 

 800 thalers. He now went from Darn^tadt, 

 where he had been living, to St. Goar, where 

 with Emanuel Geibel he passed a short pe- 

 riod of uninterrupted happiness. But he soon 

 began to be affected by the liberal current 

 then making itself felt throughout Germany, 

 and in the beginning of 1844 he declined to 

 receive any longer the annuity granted him bj 

 the King, and in the same year published his 

 " Glaubensbekenntniss," a volume of poems, 

 with which he went over openly to the Liberal 

 camp. The reasons for this step he sets forth 



