On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    schismatics and heretics , the same persecuting cruelties which they themselves afterwards * in many instances , endured at the hands of their Popish adversaries . Had it been imagined at the period of the Reformation that such a measure could be construed into a recognition of the principle , that the religious opinions of every individual are solely under his own dominion and cognizance , there is little doubt that tne contemplated change would have been viewed with terror and abhorrence , and that the Churchmen who so

    zealously promoted its progress , would decidedly have preferred the servitude of Rome to a freedom so dangerous to their dearest prejudices and interests . But views like these cannot be expected from a member of that Church which was erected by the hands of the English Reformers . To Mr . Soames the Reformation is a work which left nothing to be desired , and which placed upon a sure basis the interests of rational religion . In transferring to the native Sovereign the supremacy in spiritual matters , that important power

    became re-vested in its original depository , and all that remained to be done was to guard it from resumption by the Roman Pontiff . The persons engaged in effecting this change are of course regarded by Mr . Soames as men who laboured wisely and well in their great calling , and whose characters are to be held up to the love and veneration of posterity . The Catholics and their proceedings are , on the other hand , regarded by him with a jealous and an evil eye ; and though the two parties at this period differed very slightly

    indeed , either in principle or in practice , a most partial measure of praise and censure is dealt out to them . When Cranmer presides at the trial of a wretched Sacramentary , and condemns him to the flames , an excuse is found for the Reformed Prelate , in the plea that he was merely the instrument of the law ; but when the persecutions of a Popish Bishop are detailed , we find

    no industrious collection of extenuating circumstances . Even the cruel policy of Henry meets with but a small portion of that reprobation which would have been , without doubt , bestowed upon it , had he committed his atrocities in endeavouring to force Catholicism upon his subjects ; and when Mr . Soames no longer can venture to withhold his censures , the cruelties and

    persecutions of the king are attributed to the instigation of the Catholics , The ecclesiastical hatred descends also on the children ' s children ; the fight is still for the goodly birthright won from the Papal Antichrist : and if the , crime or folly of the Popish zealot of other days is blazoned forth , it is to point the popular venom against his ill-fated descendant . In preferring these charges against Mr . Soames , we do not mean to impute to him an intention to misrepresent or to mislead . To expect that a faithful son of the triumphant Church should produce a just and impartial

    narrative of the Reformation of his own Church , and the fight by which shq won what he means to k ^ ep , is almost as reasonable asi to look for a correct history of the Catholic hierarchy from the college of Cardinals . But , unfor ^ tunatel y * the evil and mischief of this false colouring are not materially diminished by the honesty of the historian whose hand lays it on . That Mrt Soames has , with an unsparing hand , mad $ use of these false colours in th § picture which he has drawn of the Reformation , we shall soon proceed to shew , although the full effect of his misrepresentations cannot be properly appreciated without a perusal of the whole texture of his work .

    The partial feelings of our Churchmen are ; in nothing more evident than in their estimation of the character of Henry VIIL , whom they regard as the , champion of the Reformation . Had that Prince been indeed actuated by the true spirit of religious freedom and reformation , in his opposition to the tyrannical dominion of the Roman See , he might have attracted son *? portion

    Untitled Article

    Review . —English Reformation ^ 275

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1827, page 275, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1795/page/43/