Outlines of Ecclesiastical History

by B. H. Roberts

8. England Prepared for the Reformation.—No revolution has been more gradually prepared than that which separated one half of Europe from the communion of the Roman see; nor were Luther and Zwingle any more than occasional instruments of that change which, had they never existed, would at no great distance of time been effected under the names of some other reformers. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the learned, doubtfully and with caution, the ignorant with zeal and eagerness, were tending to depart from the faith and rites which authority prescribed. But probably not even Germany was so far advanced on this course as England. Almost a hundred and fifty years before Luther, nearly the same doctrines as he taught had been maintained by Wycliffe, whose disciples usually called Lollards, lasted as a numerous though obscure and proscribed sect, till aided by the confluence of foreign streams, they swelled into the Protestant church of England. We hear, indeed, little of them during some parts of the fifteenth century, for they generally shunned persecution; and it is chiefly through records of persecution that we learn of the existence of heretics. But immediately before the name of Luther was known, they seem to have become more numerous, or to have attracted more attention; since several persons were burned for heresy, and others abjured their errors in the first years of Henry VIII's reign. Some of these, as usual among ignorant men, engaging in religious speculation, are charged with very absurd notions; but it is not so material to observe their peculiar tenets as the general fact that an inquisitive and sectarian spirit had begun to prevail.—Hallam's Const. Hist. England.

9. Henry VIII and his Revolt Against Rome.—Soon after Henry was declared by Parliament the only supreme head on earth of the church of England, the authority of the pope was finally abolished, and all tributes paid to him were declared illegal. But although the king thus separated from the church of Rome, he professed to maintain the Catholic doctrine in its purity, and persecuted the reformers most violently; so that while many were burned as heretics for denying the doctrines of Catholicism, others were executed for maintaining the supremacy of the pope. As therefore the earnest adherents of both religions were equally persecuted and equally encouraged, both parties were induced to court the favor of the king, who was thus enabled to assume an absolute authority over the nation, and to impose upon it his own doctrines as those of the only true church. * * * When news of these proceedings reached Rome, the most terrible fulminations were hurled by the pope against the king of England, whose soul was delivered over to the devil, and his dominions to the first invader; all leagues with Catholic princes were declared to be dissolved—his subjects were freed from their oaths of allegiance, and the nobility were commanded to take up arms against him. But these missives, which half a century before would have hurled the monarch from his throne and made him a despised outcast among his people, were now utterly harmless. The papal supremacy was forever lost in England.—Wilson, Hist. U. S., Appendix to Voyage and Discoveries, p. 153.

10. The Puritans.—The Puritan party professing to derive their doctrines directly from the scriptures, were wholly dissatisfied with the old church system, which they denounced as rotten, depraved and defiled by human inventions, and they wished it to undergo a thorough reform, to abandon everything of man's device, and adopt nothing, either in doctrine or discipline, which was not directly authorized by the word of God. Exceedingly ardent in their feelings, zealous in their principles, abhorring all formalism as destructive of the very elements of piety, and rejecting the regal as well as papal supremacy, they demanded in place of the liturgical service, an effective preaching of the gospel, more of the substance of religion, instead of what they denominated its shadows; and so convinced were they of the justness of their views and the reasonableness of their demands, that they would listen to no considerations which pleaded for compromise or delay.—Wilson, Hist. U. S. Appendix Voyage and Discoveries, p. 157.

11. Columbus Inspired of God.—And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren. And it came to pass that the angel said unto me, Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren. And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren who were in the promised land. And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity upon the many waters: * * * [and] I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise.—Nephi's Vision, Book of Mormon, ch. xiii:10-14.

12. Religious Liberty in the Constitution.—The parts of the United States Constitution which secure religious freedom are the clause in article vi, which says: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States;" and the first Amendment which says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof." Respecting these two clauses in the Constitution, Judge Story remarks: "We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity, (which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution), but to a dread by the people of the influence of ecclesiastical power in matters of government; a dread which their ancestors brought with them from the parent country, and which unhappily for human infirmity, their own conduct, after the emigration, had not, in any just degree, tended to diminish. It was also obvious, from the numerous and powerful sects existing in the United States, that there would be perpetual temptations to struggles for ascendency in the national councils, if any one might thereby hope to found a permanent and exclusive national establishment of its own; and religious persecutions might thus be introduced, to an extent utterly subversive of the true interests and good order of the Republic. The most effectual mode of suppressing the evil, in the view of the people, was to strike down the temptations to its introduction."

13. Hand of the Lord in the Establishment of the United States Government.—That the hand of Almighty God was in the work of founding the Government of the United States is plainly declared in one of the revelations to Joseph Smith: "It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this purpose have I established the constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood." (Doc. and Cov. sec. ci: 79, 80.) Nor are thoughtful historians blind to the fact that the hand of God has had much to do with those revolutions which finally produced the great republic of the New World. Commenting on the war of the American Revolution, Marcus Wilson says: "The expense of blood and treasure which this war cost England was enormous; nor, indeed, did her European antagonists suffer much less severely. The United States was the only country that could look to any beneficial results from the war, and these were obtained by a strong union of opposing motives and principles, unequalled in the annals of history. France and Spain, the arbitrary despots of the Old World, had stood forth as the protectors of an infant republic, and had combined, contrary to all the principles of their political faith, to establish the rising liberties of America. They seemed but as blind instruments in the hands of Providence, employed to aid in the founding of a nation which should cultivate those Republican virtues that were destined yet to regenerate the world upon the principles of universal intelligence, and eventually to overthrow the time-worn system of tyrannical usurpation of the few over the many."

REVIEW.

1. Was the Reformation confined to Germany?

2. When did the Reformation first begin?

3. Who was the leader of the movement in Switzerland?