Breaking with the Past; Or, Catholic Principles Abandoned at the Reformation

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

Beyond this the altar-stones, which by solemn rites and the unction of Holy Oil had been consecrated to God for the Sacrifice of the Mass, and upon which the Body and Blood of Christ had been offered daily for the living and the dead, were not only pulled down, cast out of the church and defaced, but were out of derision and contempt set in the floor or the doorway that the passer-by might tread them under foot; or were turned to other still more debased uses. To us Catholics the consecrated altar, with its relics of the saints and the memories of its hallowed consecration, is the most sacred thing, set apart to God's service, together with the chalice and the paten in which and upon which the mystery of the sacramental renewal of Christ's Passion is effected by the words of the priest. It was this hallowed stone which was treated with disdain and dishonour. To those who would have us think that the whole of the changes made at the time of the Reformation were mere protests, against what they please to call the abuse of the Mass, in the multiplication of Masses for the living and the dead, the fact of the contemptuous and wholesale destruction of the ancient altars and the substitution of a moveable table, should be sufficient to show that it was no abuse that was thought of, or aimed at, but the abolition of the Sacrifice altogether.

But there were other indications that this abolition of the Mass and priesthood was the set policy of the men in power at this time. A more advanced Calvinist than even Ridley urged the party forward on the down grade of Catholic doctrine. In 1550 John Hooper was offered the bishopric of Gloucester, but refused it, partly because of the mention of Saints in the New Ordinal, but mainly because of the vestments, which he would be called upon to wear and which he regarded as aaronic abominations. "You have got rid of the Mass," he said, "then rid yourselves of the feathers of the Mass also." Later, however, when in doctrinal principle Cranmer and others had advanced further in the direction of Calvin, Hooper was consecrated according to the new Ordinal on his own terms. The Mass was gone; the priesthood had passed away; the altars were pulled down in the sanctuaries; the consecrated stones were broken and dishonoured, and why should not the Vestments—Aaronic abominations—indicative of the sacrificial character of the priest be dispensed with also?

The time was propitious for Cranmer to take measures for the final destruction of the old order. Since the imposition of the First Book of Common Prayer he had had time to grow out of his previous Lutheranism and had come under the spell of Calvin and his adherents in Geneva. The Reformer had written to Cranmer a personal letter urging him to be more active and hasten on the movement of Reform. The Archbishop of Canterbury had replied begging Calvin to ply King Edward with letters urging him to eradicate the last vestiges of the old superstition. This was the spirit which presided at the composition of the Second Book of Edward VI. It was issued in 1552, and before this commissions were dispatched throughout the country to seize in the King's name all church plate and vestments.

I have already spoken a word about this final recension of the Liturgy of Edward VI. It is here sufficient to say that it was Calvinistic in its conception and doctrine. In the First Prayer Book there was some slight outward resemblance to the Mass. This was swept away, and, to use the expression of one who lived at the time, this new liturgy "had made a very hay of the Mass." Of the ancient Canon, which the Apostolic See had possessed from the earliest ages and had kept inviolate, nothing was allowed to survive, even as to form. Great Popes like St. Leo and St. Gregory had inserted a few words into this inheritance of the Church with fear and reverence. Such men would have considered it sacrilegious and impious to alter or reject any part of it. Cranmer and his followers felt no such scruples. They first mutilated it and altered it to their heart's content and finally got rid of nearly every word of it altogether. The outcome of their work may be studied in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer to-day, where the Communion Service is substantially that of the Book of 1552.

IV

[IV]

THE CHURCH BY LAW ESTABLISHED

BEARING in mind what the Catholic teaching was and is in regard to the Supremacy of the Pope, the Holy Mass and the sacrificial character of the priesthood, we can understand how far away from these teachings the legislation of King Edward's reign had carried England. To our Catholic forefathers in the beginning of the 16th Century, as to us to-day, the Pope was the Supreme Head of the Christian Church and the foundation of Christian unity. The Mass was the great Christian Sacrifice in which the bread and wine were substantially changed into the very Body and Blood of our Blessed Lord. The priest at his Ordination was given a sacrificial character, expressed clearly in the rite, empowering him to offer up the Eucharistic Sacrifice upon the Christian altar. In the second quarter of the 16th Century all these points of belief were changed by a small but determined band of English Reformers.

For a few years, on the death of Edward VI, Mary restored the old religion; the papal supremacy and jurisdiction was again acknowledged; the altars were once more set up; the ancient liturgy of the Mass was read again from the old missals; priests were again ordained according to the rite in the Catholic Pontifical, and the ordinations of those who had received orders under the Edwardine Ordinal were rejected. I pass over the reign of Queen Mary, which came to an end with her death in November, 1558. I am dealing with Catholic beliefs contrasted with the principles of the Reformation, and in this brief reign of Queen Mary the country returned to union with Rome, and all that this implied.

Of this reign, however, I may be allowed perhaps to add the verdict of the late Dr. James Gairdner, a non-Catholic historian, than whom no one has a greater right to speak with authority. "History has been cruel to her (Mary's) memory. The horrid epithet 'bloody,' bestowed so unscrupulously alike on her and on Bonner and Gardiner and the bishops generally, had at least a plausible justification in her case from the severities to which she gave her sanction. . . . Among the victims, no doubt, there were many true heroes and really honest men, but many of them also would have been persecutors if they had had their way. Most of them retained the belief in a Catholic Church but rejected the Mass and held by the services authorised in Edward VI.'s reign. But of course this meant complete rejection of an older authority—higher according to the time-honoured theory than that of any king or Parliament—which had never been openly set aside until that generation."