The Church of England : ITS CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE, AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION. A^ LTilCTURlil DELIVERED Before the CHURCH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE, HALIFAX, AND SUBSEQUENTLY In MONTREAL and SHERBROOKE, Province of Quebec, AND IN ' WINDSOR, Nova Scotia, By thr RKV. ISAAC 3ROCK:, D.D., RCCTOR OF HORTON ANO CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, HAL{F*X. Ecclcsia Atujlicaiut Libera Sit." MAGNA CHARTA, A.D. UMS. TO WHICH IS APPENDED A SERMON, . Bv I'HE SAME Author, on THE THREE-FOLD APOSTOLIC MINISTRY OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, PRCACK^D IN ST. JAMES' CHUnCH. KENTVILLC, N. S., ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER II, 1BD1. hi'. MORTON Si CO.. ■ 143 BARRINOTON STKERT. HALIFAX. A. I). 1 89 1. [Pn're 12 cefiis.^ p, The Church orENGLSND/^ ITS CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE, AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION. A. LECTURE DELIVERED Before the CHURCH OF ENGLAND INSTITUTE, HALIFAX, AND SUBSEQUENTLY In MONTREAL and SHERBROOKE, Province of Quebec, AND IN WINDSOR, Nova Scotia, By the RKV. ISAAC BROCK:, D.D., HECTOR OF HORTON AND CANON OF ST. LUKE'S CATHEDRAL, HALIFAX. EccUsia AnylicaiiM Libera Sit.^' MAGNA CHARTA, A.D. 12tS. TO WHICH IS APPENDED A SERMON, By the same Author, on THE THREE-FOLD APOSTOLIC MINISTRY OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, PRCACHEO IN ST. JAMES' CHURCH, KENTVILLC, N. •.. ON •UNOAV, OCTOBER t1. laSI. MORTON & CO.. 143 BARRINGTON STREET. HALIFAX. A. D. 189 1. [Fria 12 cen/s.] PREFACE. This Lecture is published at llie request of many who heard it, and who thought that it would prove helpful to those members of our Church who have neither the time nor the inclination to peruse those Histories of the Church of England which set forth at length the matter brought into a small compass in this Lecture, If it removes from any minds an error fostered by our Common School Histories, that the Church of England is the child of the Reformation, its publication will not have been in vain. The nature of the subject handled admitted only the briefest reference to the Early British Church. The author refers to Lane's Illustrated Notes, vol. 1., and to " Little's Reasons for Being a Churchman," for further information on this interesting subject. Reference is made in the Lecture to the beginning of schism from the English branch of the Holy Catholic Church : the beginning came from Rome : the Puritan schism (the parent of modern dissent from the Catholic Church in England) quickly followed. t)n this subject, see Lane's Illustrated Notes, vol. II. A Sermon containing a seven-fold argument for the Three-fold Min- istry of the Holy Catholic Church, recently preached in St. James' Church, Kentville, is added. It is an attempt to present a somewhat difficult subject in a popular form, in a form, that is, which will take hold of the mind of people in general. This Pamphlet can be had at the rate of $1.00 for ten copies, or $2,00 for twenty-five copies (both rates including postage), on application to the author or the publishers. Any profits arising from the sale of this Pam- phlet will be given to Guild of St. James' Church, Kentville. The Rectory, Kentville, Nova Scotia, October 31, 1891. DATES REFERRED TO IN THE LECTURE. I. EARLY BHITISH PERIOD. A. D. 304 (June 17)... Martyrdom of St. Alban. 314 Council of Aries: three British Bishops present. II. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD. A. D. 597 Mission of St. Augustine to Kent. 635 St. Aidan of lona, Bishop of Norlhumbria. 604 Synod of Whitby. GG8-690 Episcopate of Tiieodore, 7lh Archbishop of Canterbury. G78 Division by Theodore of the Diocese ol Northumbria. Wilfrid's appeal to Rome. 090-800 The golden age of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 800 Coronation of Charlemagne at St. Peter's, Rome. 871-901 Reign of Alfred the Great. in. ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD. A. D. 1066 The Battle of Senlac. 1070 Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury. 1081 Conflict between Gregory VII. and Lanfranc. 1164 Constitutions ol Clarendon. J215 (Jun. 15).. .The Magna Charla. 1351 The Stalrite of Provisors. 1353 The Statute of Praemunire. 1378-1417 Rival Popes, IV. REFORMATION PERIOD. A.D. 1534 Abolilton of Papal Supremacy in England. 1549 First Prayer-Book of Edward VI. 1552 Second " " " 1558 (Nov. 17)... Accession of Queen Elizabeth. 1559 (Doc. 17)...Consecration of Parker, 69lh Archbishop of Canterbury. 1570 The Bull of Pope Pius V. commenced ther work of schism from the Holy Catholic Chnrcb in England. 1662 Final Revision, after the Savoy Conferencey of the English Book of Common Prayer. S890(.Nov. 21)...The judgment of the Archbishop of Canter- bwry in the case of the Bishop of Lincoln, THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND: ;■ - I. ITS CONTINUOUS AND ORGANIC LIFE: II. AND ITS CATHOLIC RESTORATION. My motto, which will serve to iutrorluce both divisions of my subject, is found in the first and last sentences of the Magna Charta, signed at Ruunymede, near Windsor, by King John and the Barons of England, headed by Stepheji Langtou, Archbishop of Canterbury, on June 15, llil5. " ECCLESIA ANGLICANA LIBERA SIT." "The Church of England shall be free." These words, I say, bear on both divisions of my present subject. They witness to the continuous organic life of the Church of England. For how was our national Church spoken of in our national Charta 1 Was it spoken of as the Holy Roman Church, or as the Church of Rome lu England 1 Nay : it was then as now known to Englishmen by its distinctive national name — ECCLESIA ANGLICANA then ; and think what a time that was ! Verily it seemed the very darkest hour of England's Nation, and England's Church. 'Twas high tide at the Vatican. The forged decretals of Isidore, and the gigantic genius of Hildebrand had consolidated that fabric of papal despotism, which has been growing since the memorable year A. D. 606, when the Emperor Phocas, a tyrant and a murderer, placed on the brow of Pope Boniface III. the mitre of the universal Episcopate ; the assumption of which his illustrious predecessor, Gregory the Groat, had taught would be a mark of " the forerunner of Anti-Christ." e Only three years before tlie siguing of ilio Magna Charta, King Jolm had surrendered his crown to Pandulpli, Legato of Vope Innocent III. ; lie had become the Pope's man, \m serf; Enghmd liad become a fief of the Papacy ; and England's Church seemed utterly at the mercy of the foreign tyrant ; but even then, in the eyes of hor patriot Archbishop and Barons, she was " Ecclesia Anglicana." And even then, when the iron heel of the foreign despot and usurpfcr was crushing her to the ground, came the words twice repeated in the great Charta of our national freedom : " Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit;" " The Chnrch of Enj^land shall be free." Surely they were a prophecy, unconscious no doubt, of that work Catholic Restoration, would bo carried out three centuries later, ■when England's Church regained her primitive and her rightful freedom. I.-First: THE CONTINUOUS ORGANIC LIFE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. And ichen did the Church of England as a unit begin to have an organic life? There was a flourishing Church in ancient Britain long before it got the name of England. By whom founded we do not know. When founded we c£iunot certainly tell. That Chuich of ancient Britain has left its mark in our Prayer Book of to-day ; for in our calendar we find on June 17, the name of St, Alban, proto-martyr of the British Church. That ancient Church emerges from the obscurity which surrounds its origin into the clear day-light of history A. D. 314, at the Council of Aries in Southern France, whose decrees were signed by throe Bishops from Britain — Restitutus of London, Eborius of York, and Adelphius Civitatis Colonise, which is supposed to be Caerlonon-Usk in North Wales. The Sf -von invasion drove this ancient British Church, with its bishops, priests and deacons, back into the western parts of the Island, Wales and Cornwall, where it lived to confer through its bishops with Augustine, at the opening of the seventh century, and through them to protest against his claims, and those of the bishops of Rome who sent him. Memoral)lo is that first protest of the Church of nncient Britain ; inetnorablo a« the fore-runner of many another protest which our national Church would be constrained to enter against the unscriptural and un-catholic claims of Rome in later centuries. That protest of the British Bishops assembled at Bangor, ran on this wise : " Be it known and declared that we all individually and collec- tively are in all humility prepared to ilefer to the Church of God, and the Bishop of Home, and to every sincere and godly Christian, so far as to love every one according to his degree in perfect charity, and to assist them all by word and deed in becoming the children of God. But as for any other obedience we know of none, that ho, whom yon term Pope, or Bishop of Home, can demand. The defer- ence we have mentioned wo are ready to pay him, as to every other (christian, but in all other respects our obedience is duo to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Caerlon, who is alone, under God, tho ruler to keep us right in the way of salvation." Very modest Avere claims of Augustine, and of the illustrious Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, who sent him to the heathens of Saxon England; very modest, as compared with those of Hildebrand, or Innocent III., but even these modest claims the Bishops of the ancient Chuich of Britain were not prepared to admit. •.; To proceed. ,; There were Churches in Saxon. England in the seventh century. There was the Church founded by St. Augustine, sent by Gregory, Bishop of Rome, whose centre was Canterbury, and whoso sphere of operation was south-eastern England — the Church of the Italian Missions. There was the Church founded by St. Aidan and his devoted fellow missionaries from lona, sent by the Abbot of lona, whose centre was Lindisfarne, and whose spheres of operation were northern and central England, the great kingdoms of North urabria and Mercia — the Church of the Celtic Missions.* * Three-fifths of England WHS ovntieclizeJ by rni?si«nnrics who owned no connexion whntever with the See of Rome. Tho iiuthority for this statement is the Roman Ciitholio histurinn, Montiilainbert. See his " Monks of the West." The late Bishop Lightfoot. in his '* Lenders in the Northern Church." uses this expression: " Augustine was the Apostle of Kent, Aidan was the Apostle of England." 8 And as we have already seen, there was the ancient British Church in Wales and Cornwall. Very trifling differences of ritual aiid custom, more serious differences of race, kept apart these different branches of Christ's Holy Catholic Church in England : but while they remained apart, the national Church of England, the Church of England, as a unit in the land, had not began her history ; and therefore it is too early to speak of her continuous organic life. When did that continuous organic life begin ] To leave out of view for the present the British Church in Wales, which came at a later period into union with the Church of England, when did the Churches of the Italian and Celtic Missions begin to be fused into one united Church of England 1 The first step toward that union was taken at the Synod of Whitby, in Northumbria, A. D. 664. Oswy, King of Northumbria, had been educated at lona ; but his Queen, Eanfleda, daughter of Edwin and Ethelberga. had been edu- cated at Canterbury. Hence on the Northumbrian throne the traditions and the ritual of lona and Canterbury were represented. That Synod decided for the observance of Easter at the time decreed by the Nicene Canons, and in other matters also decided that the Church of the Celtic Missions in England should conform to the usages prevailing in the great Church of Western Europe. That Synod of the Church of North umbria showed that union was desired and thought desiraWe by many in authority in the Church, and in the northern kingdom of the Heptarchy. But to bring about that union as a fact in the then divided king- doms of Saxon England was another matter. To effect this, the Churches of Kent and Northumbria needed a man of commanding genius and dominating will. God sent the man, who was to be the second founder and the real organizer of the Church of England. He came from a city dear to every Christian heart, Tarsus of Cilicia, the bitth-place of St. Paul. The whole circumstances connected with the consecration of Theodore of Tarsus, to be the seventh Archbishop of Canterbury, indicate the over-ruling piovidence of God, who, at the right moment 9 sent the lijiht man, to blend into one organized Church of England the Churches of the Italian and Celtic Missions. Theodore of Tarsus was cont-'ecrated at Rome to be Archbishop of Canterbury in March, 668. He was 66 years of age at the time of his consecration. Ho died Sept. 19, 690. Those twenty-two years of the Episcopate of Archbishop Theodore witness the blending into one Church of England under the metropolitan throne of Canterbury, the scattered and isolated Missions sent from Rome and lona, which had largely accomplished the evangelization of England. Archbishop Theodore was recognized sis a public blessing by the kings and people of England ; and according to Bede he was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to whom all England submitted. How this born ruler of men, with vist practical and administrative ability, and with resolute will, made himself felt as the rightful chief- ijastor of the several Churches and Missions of England; hc.v he succeeded in moulding them 'uto unity under the metropolitan See of Canterbury, it would take too long to tell. Suffice it to say that the Church of England, as we know it to-day, in its diocesan and parochial organization, was mainly the work of Archbishop Theodore. And, as Green has poiiit-c-d out in his History of the English people, Theodore did unconsciously a pcUtical work for England, and helped forward that unity ol the nation wlach was reached about a century and a half later under Egbert. " The single throne of the one primate at Canterbury, accustomed men's minds to the thought of a single throne for their one temporal over-lord. The regular subordination of priest to bishop, of bishop to primate in ihe administration of the Church, supplied a mould on which the civil organization of the State quietly shaped itself. Above all, the councils gathered by Archbishop Theodore were the first of our national gatherings for general legislation. It was at a much later period that the wise men of Wessex, or Northumbria, or Mercia, learned to come together in the Parliament of all England." It would be interesting to dwell on such an era as the Episcopate of Theodore forms in the history of the Church of England. But time forbids. 10 One question only I should like to ask and to answer beforo passing on. What was the relation of the Church of England in her newly organized unity to the Church of Rome, and to the l5ishop of Eome t The Church of England was in full communion, no doubt, with the gi'oat Church of Western Europe ; and grateful to Rome England's Church must have been, not only for Augustine, but also more recently for Theodore. But did communion and gratitude imply sN?)?niss inn? That is the question. Have we any means of answering this qupstion f Providentially we have. At the request of the King and Queen of Northumbria, Theodore, as Primate of all England, determined to divide the extensive Diocese of Northumbria, of which the celebrated Wilfrid was then Bishop. Theodore decided on this important step without con.sulting Wilfrid : of course this was neither just nor con- siderate. A few years beforo the saintly and humble-minded Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (whose name you will find in your Prayer Book), had submitted to the imperious will of Theodore, in his transference from York to Ljchfield. But Wilfrid of York was a very difierent man from Chad of Lichtiekl. He was not going tamely to submit to the ruling of his Primate, backed though it was by the decision of his Sovereign. What did he do'? A thing unheard of before in English history : he appealed to Rome. He went himself to the Eternal City and laid his cause before the Bishop of Rome, who !»ummoned a council of fifty bishops, who decided in Wilfrid's favour, and ordered that he should be reinstated in his Diocese as it existed before its division by Archbishop Theodore. Elated with his success, Wilfrid returned to England in the spring of A. D. 680, bearing with him a letter from the Bishop of Rome, to which was attached the Bull, or leaden seal of the Pontiff, which was in his eyes a banner of victory, but which in the eyes of the Church of Northumbria was only a provocation and an insult. The king of Northumbria convened a council of the clergy and laity of his realm, and then, instefxd of confirnring the decree of the Bishop of Rome, they decided that the action of Wilfrid in appealing to Rome against the ruling of the English Primate and the North- umbrian King wa» a public offence, and Wilfrid for thi.'; oflFence was, 11 ■ by the decision of tlie King and his council, thrown into prison. I do not justify their action, I simply state the fact. The papal mandate declared an everlasting anathema against any one who should resist the decree, ordering the immediate ve-instate- nient of Wilfrid in his original Diocese and summoning Archbishop Theodore to a council at Kome. Theodore showed his independence of the Bishop of Kome by obeying neither order : he did not re-in- state Wilfrid in his Diocese, neither did he attend the council. In the first century of her history then, the Church of England, while in full communion with Kome and grateful to her chief Pastor, was not prepared to yield submission to Rome. The supremacy of the Bishop of Rome was not acknowledged by the Church of England when she began her organized life as a unit under the Metropolitan Throne of Canterbury. Two centuries from the times of Theodore bring us to the reign of the greatest of the Saxon kings of England — Alfred. A few years ago an incident occurred in England which showed the legal identity of the Church of England in the days of Alfred and Victoria. In the days of King Alfred the Church of England leased to the Crown a property on a lease of 999 years. A few years ago that lease expired, and the property reverted to the body that originally gave the lease, the Church of England ; thus showing the identity, the identity in law, of the Church of England in the reign of Queen Victoria, with the Church of England in the reign of King Alfred : and thus witnessing to the continuous organic life of the Church of England through 1000 years of her history. Archbishop Theodore died September 19, 690. We are living in the yea.' of our Lord 1891. 'Tis therefore just over 1200 years since the death of that seventh Ajchbishop of Canterbury, who was the second founder and the real organizer of the Church of England. During those 1200 years the Church of England, sharing the fortunes of the Nation of England, has gone through many vicissi- tudes. But the changes of 1200 years have not impaired her identity, have not destroyed her organic life, which has continuously existed since the days whon tho Greek Theodore brouglit the Churches ' ,' SCHOOL BOOKS. PARISH & SUNDAY SCHOOL ■.-...:... REQUISITES. V. ,...-. S. S. Libraries and Gift Bool(s, - STATIONERK OP ALL KINDS. ^ . I rlntlno of every description. AT THE LOWEST PRICES. 5®^ Orders prornptly filled cind satis- faction guaranteed. S. p. e. K. DEPOSITORY. Provinoial Book Store,