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candid and phitosopbical history of the Reformation , and we then expressed our doubts as to the probability of a writer being found with qualities com- * petent to tjie task . The Southeys , the Soameses , and the Turners , made us despair . It was , therefore , with feelings of singular satisfaction , that we read the chapters devoted to this subject in the work before us , and
discovered one historian at least who had ventured to present a faithful and impartial sketch of that great ecclesiastical feud , the commencement of which was marked with fire and blood , and which still continues to array one portion of the nation in spiritual hostility against the other . The persecuting spirit in which the Revolution of the English Church was conducted by its partizans , and the inconsistency of those Reformers , who , while they cast off the papal tyranny , attempted to establish a Protestant dominion over the consciences of their countrymen , are fully and forcibly exposed by Mr .
Hallam ; while with the sound and dispassionate judgment which so generally characterizes his writings , he has noticed with suitable reprehension the symptoms of the same spirit which were manifested by the Puritans . The principles of religious liberty , it is needless to say , were recognized at that day by very few , and among those few 9 the ministers of religion were unfortunately never found . The political conduct of the dignified clergy of the Reformed Church at this period can never be cited with approbation by any but the most partial eulogists , and is justly characterized by Mr . Hallam as by no means creditable to their cause .
" The bishops of this reign do not appear , with some distinguished exceptions , to have reflected so much honour on the Established Church , as those who attach a superstitious reverence to the age of the Reformation are apt to conceive . In the plunder that went forward , they took good care of themselves . Charges against them of simony , corruption , covetousness , and especially destruction of their church estates , for the benefit of their families , are very common ; sometimes , no doubt , unjust , but too frequent to be absolutel y without foundation . The Council often wrote to them , as well as concerning them , with a sort of asperity that would astonish one of their successors . And the queen never restrained herself in treating them on any provocation with a good deal of rudeness . "
Other proofs of the estimation in which Mr . Hallam holds the character of some of the champions of our church in the reigns of Elizabeth and her successors will be found in the first volume , pp . 320—348 . The principle upon which Mr . Hallam has formed his opinions of the Reformation , and of those who conducted it , is , that " in no possible case can it be justifiable for the temporal power to intermeddle with the private devotions or doctrines of any man , " though , at the same time , he makes a
concession , somewhat at variance with this position , and the justice of which may fairly be questioned , that u the exclusion of dissidents from trust and power may , under certain rare circumstances , be conducive to the political well-being of a state ; " and he here instances the English Test Act in the interval between 1672 and 1688 . It would , perhaps , be impossible to find any political maxim which might not in some particular instance be in- * f ringed with present advantage to the State ; but the general rule is not , therefore , to be qualified in order to meet such contingencies , more especially when , as in the case of religious toleration , the party who is to judge of the exception is scarcely ever free from the objection of being totally disqualified by prejudice from forming a correct judgment . When we consider the extreme paucity of the instances in which Mr . Hallam ' s doctrine can be properly applied ; and when , on the other hand , the imminent
Untitled Article
Review . *—Hallam s Constitutional H utory ' of England . 171
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 171, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/27/
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