ECCLESIASTICAL NULLUM TEMPUS BILL.
Another debate in which the clergy were concerned arose from a motion made by Mr. Henry Seymour, for leave to bring in a bill for securing estates against dormant claims of the church. It was argued that as the nullum tempus of the crown had been conceded in favour of the people, no reason existed why some limitation in this respect should not be set to ecclesiastical power. On the other hand it was contended that the power of reviving claims was necessary to protect the church from encroachments; and that while in the case of the crown it was an instrument in the hands of the strong to oppress the weak, in that of the church, it was a defence of the weak against the strong. The motion was rejected by 141 to 117.
THE CASE OF DR. NOWELL.
On the anniversary of the execution of King Charles, the 30th of January, Dr. Nowell preached a sermon before the house of commons. The speaker and four members only were present, and a motion of thanks and for printing the sermon was carried as a matter of course. When the sermon was printed, however, it was found to savour of the doctrines of passive obedience and the divine right of kings, and to contain principles in direct opposition to those which had placed the reigning family on the throne. This brought down a storm on the head of the preacher. Mr. Thomas Townshend moved that the sermon should be burned by the common hangman; and another member moved that all future sermons should be printed before the preachers received the thanks of the house. These motions were not carried, but on the motion of the Honourable Boyle Walsingham, it was voted that the thanks of the house to Dr. Nowell should be erased. In the course of the debate severe strictures were made upon the character of Charles I., and of that part of the liturgy which describes him as a blessed martyr; and this seems to have encouraged Mr. Montague soon afterwards to make a motion to repeal the act for observing the 30th of January as a holiday, or a day of prayer and fasting. Mr. Montague attacked the appointed form of prayer as blasphemous, inasmuch as it contains a parallel between Charles I. and our Saviour. But the motion was negatived by a majority of an 125 to 97.
TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS.
During the debates on the anti-subscription petition, many members on both sides of the house had acknowledged, that though it was just and reasonable to require subscription from persons entering the established church, it was nevertheless hard to demand it from dissenters and schoolmasters. Later in the season Sir Henry Houghton made a motion to relieve these from subscription, and from the operation of penal laws: in other words, for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. This was strongly opposed by the high church party, who argued that such an exemption would open a road to heresy and infidelity, encourage schism, and tend to the overthrow of the church of England. The bill, however, was carried in the house of commons by a large majority; but it was thrown out in the lords, where it encountered the most violent opposition of the bench of bishops and the ministry.