REFORMATION. 



Henry, howevei, with tlie caprice peculiar to his cha- 

 racter, continued to defend the doilrines of the Romifh 

 church as fiercely as he attacked their jurifdiftion. He al- 

 ternately perfecuted the Proteilants for rejefting the former, 

 and the Catholics for acknowledging the latter. 



Nothing moi-e forwarded the firft progrcfs of the re- 

 formers, than the offer which they made, of fubmittiug all 

 religious doctrines to private judgment, and the fummons 

 given every one to examine the principles formerly impofed 

 upon them. And wliat can be more jull and reafonable ? 

 and yet the multitude, fays Mr. Hume, were totally un- 

 qualilied for this undertaking, though they were highly 

 pleafed with it. They fancied that they were exerciilng 

 their judgment, while they oppofed to the prejudices of an- 

 cient authority more powerful prejudices of another kind. 

 The novelty itfelf of the dodtriues ; the pleafure of an ima- 

 ginary triumph in difpute ; the fervent zeal of the reformed 

 preachers ; their patience, and even alacrity, in fuffering 

 perfecution, death, and torments ; a difgull at the reilraints 

 of the old religion ; an indignation againll the tyranny and 

 interefted fpirit of the ecclefiailics : — thefe motives, fays the 

 fame hiftorian, whiUl, as fome may imagine, he is depre- 

 ciating the principles of the reformation, were prevalent 

 with the people ; and by fuch coniiderations were men fo 

 generally induced, during that age, to throw off the religion 

 of their anceilors. In proportion, fays the fame author, as 

 the prattice of fubmittmg religion to private judgment was 

 acceptable to the people, it appeared, in fome refpefts, dan- 

 gerous to the rights of fovereigns, and feemed to deitroy 

 that implicit obedience on which the authority of the civil 

 magiitrate is chiefly founded. When fome Englifhmen, 

 fuch were Tindal, Joye, Conftantine, and others, retired to 

 Antwerp, through fear of the exertion of the king's autho- 

 rity, they employed themfelves in writing Enghfh books 

 againft the corruptions of the church of Rome ; againft 

 images, relics, and pilgrims ; and they excited the curioiity of 

 men with regard to that queftion, which is the moil import- 

 ant in theology, the terms of acceptance with the Supreme 

 Being. Thefe books, having been fccretly conveyed to Eng- 

 land, began to make converts every where ; but it was a tranf- 

 lation of the fcriptures by Tindal that was efteemed the moil 

 dangerous to the eil.iblifhed faith. Againll Wolfey, a fa- 

 vourite minifter of Henry VHL, it was one article of im- 

 peachment, that, by his connivance, he had encouraged the 

 growth of herefy, and that he had protefted and acquitted 

 Jome notorious offenders. Wolfey was iucceeded in the 

 office of chancellor by iir Thomas More, who, irritated by 

 polemics, became fo fuperftitioufly attached to the ancient 

 faith, that few inquifitors have been guilty of greater vio- 

 lence in their profecution of herefy. Several perfons were 

 not only brought into the courts for heretical oflences, fuch 

 as teaching their children the Lord's prayer in Enghlh, for 

 reading the New Teltament in that language, or for fpeak- 

 ing againll pilgrimages ; and others were charged with the 

 capital offences of harbouring perfecuted preachers, neglect- 

 ing the falls of the church, and declaiming againft the vices 

 of the clergy. Some were tried, condemned, and com- 

 mitted to the flames. Notwithftanding the inconfiilent con- 

 du£l of Henry, his fubjedls having been encouraged, by his 

 example, to break fome of their fetters, were fo impatient 

 to Ihake off all that remained, that in the following reign, 

 under his fon Edward VI., with the general applanfe of the 

 nation, a total feparation was made from the church of 

 . Rome in articles of dodlrine, as well as in matters of difci- 

 pline andjurifditlion. (See Articles.) In 1553, his death 

 retarded the progrcfs of the reformation ; and his i'liler 

 Mary, who fucceeded him, impofed a-new the arbitrary 



laws and tyrannical yoke of Rome upon the people of ti.g. 

 land. But the execution of a great number of perfons 

 who were burnt for the Proteilant faith in the five years of 

 her perfecuting and bloody reign, fo alienated the people 

 from Popery, that queen Ehzabeth, her filter, found it no 

 hard matter to deliver her lubjefts from the bondage of 

 Rome, and to ellablifli that form of religious dottrine and 

 ecclefiaftical government, which Hill fublilts in England. 



The feeds of the reformation were very early fown in 

 Scotland, by fcveral noblemen of that nation, who had re- 

 fided in Germany during the rehgious difputes that divided 

 the empire. The firlt and moft eminent oppofer of the Papal 

 jurifdiction was Joini Knox, a difciple of Calvin, who fet 

 out from Geneva for Scotland in 1559, and in a little while 

 prevailed with the grcatell .part of the Scotch nation en- 

 tirely to abandon the fuperftitions of Rome, and to aim at 

 nothing lefs than the total extirpation of Popery. In the 

 following year, iiiz. 1560, the parliament ratified a confef- 

 fion of faith, agreeable to the new doftrines, and palling a 

 ftatute againll the mafs, not only abolilhed it in all the 

 churches, but enaftcd, that whoever, any where, either 

 officiated in it, or was prefent at it, fhould be chaftifed, for 

 the firfl offence, with contifcation of goods, and corporal 

 punifhment, at the difcretion of the magiitrate ; for the fe- 

 cond, with banifliment ; and for the third, with lofs of life. 

 A law was alio voted for abolifhing the Papal jurifdiftion in 

 Scotland ; the Prefbyteriau form of difcipline was fettled, 

 leaving only at firlt fome fliadow of authority to certain ec- 

 clefiailics, whom they called fuperintendants. From that 

 period to the prefent times the form of doftrine, worfliip, 

 and difcipline, that had been eftablifhed at Geneva by the 

 miniflry of Calvin, has been maintained in Scotland with 

 invincible obilinacy and zeal ; and every attempt to intro- 

 duce, into that kingdom, the rites and government of the 

 church of England, has proved impotent and unfuccefsful. 

 See Pre.sbyterian.s. 



The caufe of the reformation in Ireland underwent the 

 fame vicilhtudes that had attended it in England. When 

 Henry VIII., after the abohtion of the Papal authority, 

 was declared fupreme head of the church of England, 

 George Brown, a native of England, and a monk of the 

 Auguilin order, whom that monarch had created, in the 

 year 1535, archbifhop of Dublin, began to aft with the 

 utmoft vigour, in confequence of this change in the hie- 

 rarchy. He purged the churches of his diocefe from fuper- 

 ftition in all its forms, pulled down images, deft:royed relics, 

 abolilhed abfurd and idolatrous rites, and, by the influence 

 as well as authority he had in Ireland, caufed the king's fu- 

 premacy to be acknowledged in that nation. Henry Ihewed 

 ioon after, that this fupremacy was not a vain title ; for he 

 baniflied the monks out of that kingdom, confifcated their 

 revenues, and deilroyed their convents. In the reign of 

 Edward VI. farther progrefs was made in the reformation, 

 but the acceflion of Mary retarded it, in confequence of 

 which Brown and other Proteltant bifhops were deprived of 

 their dignities in the church. When Elizabeth afcended the 

 throne, the Irilh were again obliged to fubmit to the form 

 of worlhip and difcipline eltabhflied in England. 



The reformation liad not been long ellablilhed in Britain, 

 when tlie Belgic provinces, united by a refpeftable confe- 

 deracy which ilill fubfilts, withdrew from their fpiritual al- 

 legiance to the Roman pontiff. The means which Philip II. 

 king of Spain ufed to obftruft the reformation, promoted 

 it : the nobility formed themfelves into an affbciation, in the 

 year 1566, and roufed the people ; who, under the heroic 

 coudutl of Wilham of Nallau, prince of Orange, feconded 

 by the fuccours of England and France, dehvered this Itate 



from 



