Proposed Surrender of the Prayer-Book and Articles of the Church of England / A Letter to the Lord Bishop of London on Professor Stanley's Views of Clerical and University "Subscription"

by William J. Irons

Transcribed from the 1863 Rivingtons edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

PROPOSED SURRENDER OF THE PRAYER-BOOK AND
ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

A LETTER
TO THE
LORD BISHOP OF LONDON,
ON
PROFESSOR STANLEY’S VIEWS
OF
CLERICAL AND UNIVERSITY “SUBSCRIPTION.”

BY
WILLIAM J. IRONS, D.D.
PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL’S, AND INCUMBENT OF BROMPTON, MIDDLESEX.

LONDON:
THEODORE WRIGHT, 188, STRAND;
RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE; AND PARKERS, 377, STRAND, AND OXFORD.
1863.

LONDON:
SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.

A LETTER,
ETC.

Brompton, Whitsuntide, 1863.

My dear Lord,

If twenty years ago, soon after a few of the clergy had asserted their “claim to hold all Roman doctrine,” [3] a proposal had been made to abolish Subscription to the English Formularies, it would surely have been thought to indicate very grave disloyalty to our Church. And now, when others have asserted the right to unfettered “free-thinking” within her pale, and endeavoured to vindicate that right in our Courts of Law, can we help being struck at the intrepidity of the demand to sweep away at once the sober restraints of orthodoxy to which Churchmen have been so long accustomed?