Tenison’s sermon was zealously defended by an anonymous pamphleteer, who included within his defence funeral discourses delivered by other dignitaries; and whilst the press was occupied by this controversy, the friends and agents of James were rejoicing in the death of Mary as endangering the position of William. The Church of England, it was now thought, would be weaned from his cause, by the outburst of his Presbyterian predilections, even to the overthrow of Episcopacy. The ruin of its interests seemed at hand, unless the Revolution could be revolutionized. Ten thousand men, the Jacobite plotters surmised, would suffice for the reconquest of the kingdom, since the Church of England party, who had been for William only on Mary’s account, were, it was thought, now entirely alienated from him. The confusion occasioned by her removal was relied upon as a proof of the inclination of the people to see their Stuart King back at St. James.[238]
1695.
In noticing the deaths of Sancroft, Tillotson, and Mary, we have passed over a period marked by one of those silent changes which often elude the notice of historians. The change referred to is connected very closely with religious freedom. We have had frequent occasion to notice restrictions on the liberty of the press. It is not necessary to go back further than 1662, when Lord Clarendon’s Act for licensing books was passed. The Act proscribed the printing and selling of heretical, schismatical, blasphemous, seditious, and treasonable publications. Nothing was to appear contrary to the Christian faith, or the doctrines or discipline of the Church of England. Books on law required a license from the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Chief Justices; books of history, a license from the Secretaries of State; books of divinity and philosophy, a license from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The folly of such restrictions—proved by their futility when evaded, and by their mischievousness when carried into effect—needs no comment. The Act now noticed was made to be in force for two years. It was then continued. In 1685 it was re-enacted for seven years. It continued through the Revolution; and in 1692 was renewed under the Tories for two years more. At four different times, from 1694 to 1698, attempts were made in Parliament to prepare new Bills for licensing printing presses, and the Whigs on one occasion seemed on the point of following the example of their political rivals. Movement in the old direction went so far once, that a restrictive Bill passed the Lords and was read in the Commons—to be thrown out on a second reading. Church and State thus narrowly missed being shackled again in the exercise of rights ever precious to enlightened humanity; and the year 1694, though unmarked in history, is illustrious in fact through the melting away for ever of a long-continued and mischievous licensing law. Not, however, as we shall presently see, that all legislative interference with the publishers of opinions then terminated; but a great obstacle vanished out of the path to that wide intellectual liberty which as a nation we now enjoy.
CHAPTER IX.
Tillotson, shortly before his death, as already related, was engaged with his Episcopal brethren in drawing up certain ecclesiastical regulations to be issued on their authority, but which he afterwards felt would be more effective if published in the King’s name. Shortly after Tenison’s accession to the Archiepiscopate, injunctions were sent forth by Royal command, touching points exactly of the nature indicated to have been discussed in prior Episcopal meetings at Lambeth. When we consider the time of their appearance, we have no doubt the new Archbishop adopted the draft of his predecessor. It appeared in the form of a Royal proclamation, recommending care in conferring orders, condemning pluralities and non-residence, and urging upon Bishops to watch over their Clergy, and promote, through them, the celebration of Sacraments, the visitation of the sick, and the catechetical instruction of the young.[239]
1695.
The publication of these articles in the King’s name is a fact not to be lightly passed over. Royal letters had been issued by Queen Elizabeth for the reform of ecclesiastical affairs, yet none of them dealt so particularly with abuses as did this mandate of William’s. It is remarkable that Charles I.—the opposite in ecclesiastical and political sentiments to the hero of the Revolution—had addressed to Laud a number of instructions, which strongly resemble those now under notice.[240] After the Restoration, although Charles II. by several missives had exercised immediate authority over the Church, and had given explicit directions as to how the Clergy were to preach,[241] such orders as approach nearest to those of William are found to bear the simple impress of archiepiscopal authority.[242] What had been attempted in the way of Church reform by Sancroft appears in the shape of an agreement between himself and the other Prelates to do things formerly enunciated.[243] The grounds upon which Tillotson and Tenison arrived at the determination to seek Church reform under cover of Royal authority, do not appear; but the proclamations indicate that, at the time, the chief spiritual rulers of the land must have had high views of the prerogatives of the Crown. If since Elizabeth’s Reformation the title of Head of the Church[244] had not been legally employed, all which that title could be taken to mean, successive Archbishops of Canterbury—Tillotson and Tenison—were ready to concede; and what is a little curious, in making this concession they could find a precedent in the acts of Archbishop Laud under Charles I. A still more striking example of the interference of the Crown with purely religious subjects will soon come under our notice.
ECCLESIASTICAL REGULATIONS.
The fact is, that what is generally called Erastianism attained more power than ever after the Revolution. The State ruled the Church. In the matter of Toleration it maintained the liberties of Nonconformity against the designs of bigoted Churchmen, and in the management of internal affairs it sought to promote the interests of a moderate and salutary reform.
A circular from the Archbishop, addressed to each of his suffragan Bishops, followed on the 16th of July, 1695; and in it, without referring to the Royal communication made in the month of February, he specifies a number of particulars which had been considered by him and such of his brethren as were at the time in or near London. These particulars relate to certain religious matters—to the public reading in church of the Act against profane cursing and swearing, and to catechetical instruction—but they relate also to a number of subjects connected with temporalities, such as the prevention of Simoniacal covenants, the better payment of curates, dilapidations, glebe lands, surrogates, and the removal of clergymen from one diocese to another. The employment of proper care in examinations for orders—a point of great religious importance—is, however, enforced at length, and each Bishop is urged to lay it upon the conscience of the candidate, to observe such fasting as is prescribed upon Ember-days, and to give himself to meditation and prayer. It is worth noticing that the third of the injunctions calls attention to the 55th canon, which enjoins the bidding of prayer for the King before sermon; “it being commonly reported,” says the Archbishop, “that it is the manner of some in every diocese either to use the Lord’s Prayer (which the canons prescribe as the conclusion of the prayer, and not the whole prayer) or at least, to leave out the King’s titles, and to forbear to pray for the Bishops as such.”[245] The sentence reveals a state of things serious, if not alarming, both to the King and the Bishops. Plainly there brooded disaffection towards the existing power in Church and State. Jacobites and Nonjurors troubled the British Israel, and manifested their feelings in the House of God. Parish churches, if not cathedrals, presented Sunday after Sunday proofs of disloyalty and spiritual revolt. A new species of Nonconformity ate its way into the hearts of Englishmen—a fact to be illustrated in subsequent portions of this history.