On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
to have excited considerable discussion . Their anomalous and primitive © ommoiHsease plan of bishop-making fa a point of much more importance , and , one would think , impossible to be gamsayed ; while its existence renders that of many other primitive and simple observances highly probable . But we must be allowed to pause before we see , With our modern Scotch friends ,
a genuine Synod of Presbyterians settling at lona ; or fancy that the Reformation found sparks of their ancient spirit still glimmering and capable of being rekindled ; and that the attachment of the Scotch , in later days , to the old standard of Presbyterianism is owing to the transmission of Culdeei blood in their veins . In the absence of any very clear information on the subject , we may , perhaps , point at some of those errors of which Bede may be considered as recording the existence .
We have already noticed two heresies in discipline , and the more important heresy as to bishop-making ; and we hardly think it worth while to bestow any arguments in defence of adding without hesitation , the v ^ ry capital offence of troubling themselves very little , if at all , about the Bishop of Rome . Their heresy as to bishops , after all , probably , was not one founded on any previous theory or reasoning on the subject , one way or another . The name in their vocabulary , probably , had never acquired any
such sanctity or dignity of character as priestly craft has learned to attach to it ; and it seemed to them in nowise derogatory to the missionary ' s dignity , or to the good conduct of the chureh , that a few good and worthy men , by whatever name called , should , for the purpose of imparting the blessings of Christianity to a distant land , select one of their number , as fitted by his
talent and character , and send him forth as the " overseer" of the flock seeking a shepherd . Perhaps , however , all the difference which this ancient church admitted between presbyter and bishop , was the conferring of the latter ti $ e on one set apart for a peculiar charge ; on which system the several Seotch bishoprics were formed and established by this council of elders , as occasion arose , by tihe foundation of a church in each Heathen province .
It may gratify our curiosity and flatter national vanity to endeavour to find primitive churches on this verge of Christianity ; steadfast in the simplicity of ancient observances , and bold iti their maintenance of truth against the arts and power of the papal court ; remaining single and uncorrupted , like die inhabitants of the Pays de Vaud , from age to age , of grasping usurpation and unsparing persecution ; but we are afraid that history will not vouch for such a picture , however pleasing , among the ancient Christians
of Ireland or Scotland . There are certainly several points on which there is strong reason to believe that these churches had preserved some of the purity and simplicity which seclusion from contaminating influences would practically be likely to maintain ; but it does not appear to us , we confess , that these points of separation were those most prized and contended for by
their possessors ; and we are afraid that there is too much ground for believing that the superstitious observances taught by the western missionaries were not much objected to ; and that What contest was maintained was principally on matters of property and patronage ;—a conduct which has given the best foundation for the assertions which have been roundly made by the advocates of Rome , that no difference ever existed of a more imp&rtant
character . On the point of celibacy it seems clear that these monks , or members of the Culdee Colleges , ( for it is important m many points of view that we should always bear in mind that these institutions were , perhaps , quite as much literary * and for the promotion' of literary ptirposd * , m they were
Untitled Article
Th * Ouldeee of Ima . 863
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1827, page 863, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1803/page/7/
-