A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

CHURCH OF ENGLAND. (See Anglo-Catholic Church.) By the Church of England we mean that branch of the Catholic Church which is established under its canonical bishops in England. Properly speaking, at present it forms only a branch of the united Church of England and Ireland. When and by whom the Church was first introduced into Britain is not exactly ascertained, but it has been inferred from Eusebius that it was first established here by the apostles and their disciples; some have supposed, by St. Paul. According to Archbishop Usher, there was a school of learning to provide the British churches with proper teachers in the year 182. But when the Britons were conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, who were heathens, the Church was persecuted, and the professors of Christianity were either driven to the mountains of Wales, or reduced to a state of slavery. The latter circumstances prepared the way for the conversion of the conquerors, who, seeing the pious and regular deportment of their slaves, soon learned to respect their religion. We may gather this fact from a letter written by Gregory, the bishop of Rome, in the sixth century, to two of the kings of France, in which he states that the English nation was desirous of becoming Christian; and in which he, at the same time, complains to those monarchs of the remissness of their clergy in not seeking the conversion of their neighbours. And hence it was that Gregory, with that piety and zeal for which he was pre-eminently distinguished, sent over Augustine, and about forty missionaries, to England, to labour in the good work. The success of these missionaries, the way having thus been paved before them, was most satisfactory. They converted Ethelbert, who was not only king of Kent, but Brætwalda, or chief of the Saxon monarchs. His example was soon followed by the kings of Essex and East Anglia, and gradually by the other sovereigns of England.

The successful Augustine then went over to Arles in France, where he was consecrated by the prelate of that see; and, returning, became the first archbishop of Canterbury, the patriarch and metropolitan of the Church of England. His see was immediately endowed with large revenues by King Ethelbert, who likewise established, at the instance of the archbishop, the dioceses of Rochester and London. Another portion of the Anglo-Saxons were converted by the Scottish bishops. And thus gradually the Anglo-Saxon kings created bishoprics equal in size to their kingdoms. And the example was followed by their nobles, who converted their estates into parishes, erecting fit places of worship, and endowing them with tithes.

It is a great mistake to suppose, as some do, that the old churches in England were built or endowed by laws of the state or acts of parliament. They were the fruit of the piety of individuals of all ranks, princes and nobles, and private citizens. This fact accounts for the unequal sizes of our dioceses and parishes: the dioceses were (though subsequently subdivided) of the same extent as the dominions of the respective kings; the parishes corresponded with the estate of the patrons of particular churches. Nor was the regard of those by whom the Church was established and endowed, confined to the spiritual edification of the poor; no, they knew that righteousness exalteth a nation, and estimating properly the advantages of infusing a Christian spirit into the legislature, they summoned the higher order of the clergy to take part in the national councils.

From those times to these, an uninterrupted series of valid ordinations has carried down the apostolical succession in our Church.

That in the Church of England purity of doctrine was not always retained may be readily admitted. In the dark ages, when all around was dark, the Church itself suffered from the universal gloom: this neither our love of truth, nor our wishes, will permit us to deny. About the seventh century the pope of Rome began to establish an interest in our Church. The interference of the prelate of that great see, before he laid claim to any dominion of right, was at first justifiable, and did not exceed just bounds, while it contributed much to the propagation of the gospel. That the bishop of Rome was justified as a Christian bishop, of high influence and position, in endeavouring to aid the cause of Christianity here in England, while England was a heathen nation, will not be disputed by those who recognise the same right in the archbishop of Canterbury with respect to foreign heathens. But, in after ages, what was at first a justifiable interference was so increased as to become an intolerable usurpation. This interference was an usurpation because it was expressly contrary to the decisions of a general council of the Church, and such as the Scripture condemns, in that the Scripture places all bishops on an equality; and so they ought to continue to be, except where, for the sake of order, they voluntarily consent to the appointment of a president or archbishop, who is nothing more than a primus inter pares, a first among equals. This usurpation for a time continued, and with it were introduced various corruptions, in doctrine as well as in discipline.

At length, in the reign of Henry VIII., the bishops and clergy accorded with the laity and government of England, and threw off the yoke of the usurping pope of Rome. They, at the same time, corrected and reformed all the errors of doctrine, and most of the errors of discipline, which had crept into our Church during the reign of intellectual darkness and papal domination. They condemned the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation, the worship of saints and images, communion in one kind, and the constrained celibacy of the clergy; having first ascertained that these and similar errors were obtruded into the Church in the middle ages. Thus restoring the Church to its ancient state of purity and perfection, they left it to us, their children, as we now find it. They did not attempt to make new, their object was to reform, the Church. They stripped their venerable mother of the meretricious gear in which superstition had arrayed her, and left her in that plain and decorous attire with which, in the simple dignity of a matron, she had been adorned by apostolic hands.

Thus, then, it seems that ours is the old Church of England, tracing its origin, not to Cranmer and Ridley, who only reformed it; but that it is the only Church of England, which traces its origin up through the apostles to our Saviour Himself. To adopt the words of a learned and pious writer: “The orthodox and undoubted bishops of Great Britain are the only persons who, in any manner, whether by ordination or possession, can prove their descent from the ancient saints and bishops of these isles. It is a positive fact that they, and they alone, can trace their ordinations from Peter and Paul, through Patrick, Augustine, Theodore, Colman, Columba, David, Cuthbert, Chad, Anselm, Osmund, and all the other worthies of our Church.” “It is true that there are some schismatical Romish bishops in these realms, but they are of a recent origin, and cannot show the prescription and possession that we can. Some of these teachers do not profess to be bishops of our churches, but are titular bishops of places we know not. Others usurp the titles of various churches in these islands, but are neither in possession themselves, nor can prove that their predecessors ever occupied them. The sect (the sect of English Papists or Roman Catholics) arose in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when certain persons, unhappily and blindly devoted to the see of Rome, refused to obey and communicate with their lawful pastors, who, in accordance with the laws of God and the canons, asserted the ancient independence of the British and Irish Church; and the Roman patriarch then ordained a few bishops to sees in Ireland, which were already occupied by legitimate pastors. In England this ministry is of later origin; for the first bishop of that communion was a titular bishop of Chalcedon in the seventeenth century.

The ecclesiastical state of England, as it stands at this day, is divided into two provinces or archbishoprics, of Canterbury and York, which are again subdivided into several dioceses. (See Archbishop.)

For the safeguard of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, many provisions are made both by the civil and canon law.

Whoever shall come to the possession of the crown of England shall join in communion with the Church of England, as by law established. (12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, s. 3.)