Reformation and Restoration. By Prof. W. M. Blackburn, D. D. [pp. 348-369]

Reformation and Restoration.
glorious realm to the holy Roman See in faith and obedience
forever.... Henceforth, in recompense for that enduring
felicity which he has secured to it, our most Holy Lord [the
pope] has all England at his devotion." A few months later
he foresaw that the King would not only divorce Catherine,
but renounce the pope's jurisdiction, and he urged all the
Roman powers to "have respect to the weal of tile See Apostolic," lest England should repudiate its authority. Such
was the man ecclesiastically, to say nothing of his moral blemishes, who is represented as the fittest reformer of the Anglican Church! "Why," Mr. Blunt inquires, "if Wolsey had
such excellent objects in view, why was it that he failed?..
Wolsey's failure-so far as it was a failure-is to be partly
explained by the fact that he tried to work out his good ends
by means of an external [foreign] authority, which essentially
invaded the rights of the Church, instead of by the inherent
authority which the Church of England, and every other national Church, possessed for reforming itself. There is some
reason to believe that he saw the better way, but chose the
worse." He erred in becoming the pope's vicar, contrary to
the law of prcemunire; "consequently his plans broke down,
a great opportunity was lost, and the Reformation never became in the hands of others what it had given fair promise of
becoming in those of the most honest, the noblest, and the
wisest of our church reformers." These are the adjectives
piled upon Wolsey! No sort of assertion should hereafter
astound us. We are quite ready for any inversion of history.
Wolsey's plans did not end with him, the papal allegiance
excepted. He left behind him a " Church-party" of men who
excelled in conserving very much of popery without the name,
and in tribulating "heretics" not so conservative. Their
doctrinal efforts culminated in the Ten Articles and The Institution of a Christian Man. The limited extent of their
reform appears in certain articles which savor of the Middle
Ages. Thk sacrament of baptism is declared to be necessary
to the attainment of everlasting life; only baptized infants
could be saved. "The Sacrament of Penance" is declared.to
be "a thing so necessary for man's salvation, that no man
which after his baptism is fallen again, and hath committed
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