on 20th February 1862
by the Rev. R. W. Enraght, Curate of St Bartholomew's Church, Corsham.
The
subject of the English Reformation was brought before the inhabitants
of this parish on Wednesday evening last week, in a very interesting
lecture by the Rev. R. W. Enraght, curate of Corsham, delivered at
the National School.
The
Lecturer began by explaining how it came about that the Church of
England was in need of a Reformation in the 16th century ;
viz, through her having come into close contact, for a few centuries,
with the Church of Rome after that church had began to corrupt the
ancient faith of the Catholic church, and establish a system of
church government altogether unknown to the primitive ages.
The corruption of doctrines in the church of Rome was gradual ; errors were held by individuals in that church for centuries before they were formally set forth by authority as doctrines to be believed on pain of damnation. The primitive doctrine on church government, moreover, was that all Bishops (who were called Popes in early times) and all churches together forming the Catholic church, the bishop of Rome being looked upon by the church as a first amongst equals, being as he was the Bishop of the most important see. Gradually, however, through a course of events, which the Lecturer described, he became so powerful in Europe, that he suddenly found out that he had a right to govern the whole church of Christ ; seeing that Jesus Christ had, as it was said, appointed St. Peter and his successors to be the heads of his church and vicars upon earth.
The well known forged Decretal Epistles assisted the Bishop of Rome in establishing this usurped claim in the dark ages. The first Bishop of Rome who ventured to assert this claim in plain words was Boniface III, in the 7th century ; but the first Roman Prelate who succeeded in persuading Europe to acquiesce in the claim was Bishop Hildebrand, or Gregory VII, at the latter end of the 11th century ; one of his predecessors, Bishop Gregory the Great, having most significantly declared in the 6th century (when the Bishop of Constantinople was attempting to set up the same claim over him) that “He who assumed the title of Universal Bishop was actuated by pride of Lucifer and the forerunner of Antichrist.”
The influence of the Church of Rome over England commenced in the 8th century when Gregory the Great sent Augustine over here to help the persecuted Church against the Saxons. This influence gradually increased until at length the English Church which had in early ages been independent, as were all other churches, and governed herself ; came to a very great extent under the authority of Rome.
At the Reformation therefore, instead of becoming schismatical, or making herself a new church, she merely threw off the usurped rule ; declaring at the same time in her 30th Canon that she in no wise intended to separate from the rest of the Catholic Church, but only to throw off the errors in doctrine and church government into which she had fallen.
The early councils had declared that whatever Church should in after ages add new articles to the ancient creeds should be considered virtually schismatic al, and therefore Pope Pius IV by adding 12 new articles to the ancient creeds at the council of Trent became schismatic al by the judgement of those early councils which the Church of Rome declares to have been infallible as regards this same claim of infallibility.
The lecturer observed that whatever dust it may throw into people’s eyes the fact is that it has never been asserted by authority in the Church of Rome. There is no single bull of a Pope or Canon of a council which ventured to assert such a claim, and without some authoritative declaration of Rome not only opinions of particular divines in that church are of no weight whatsoever. The Church of Rome not only is infallible, but has never dared authoritatively to assert such a claim.
The Lecturer proceeded to describe the manner in which the English Church had age after age protested against the usurped authority of the Romish Bishops, observing that, instead of Luther or Henry 8th having commenced our Reformation, the fact was that Wikcliffe had publicly for years asserted the chief reform doctrines essentially before Luther was born, and had not only asserted them, but gained over a great proportion of the English Clergy and people to his opinions.
As regards the rightful supremacy of the King over all estates of his realm, both ecclesiastical and civil, it had been asserted in Convocation 200 years before Henry VIII, by Archbishop Courtney, so that in the reign of Henry VIII, Archbishop Wareham virtually did nothing else than effectually assert that which had been ineffectually asserted 200 years before.
The Lecturer proceeded to notice the absurd Romish taunt that “at the Reformation the English Church was taken away from the Catholics,” observing that if all baptized persons are Catholics, that is members of the Universal Church, it is hard to see how we could have taken away our own Church from ourselves ; the truth being that we only cleansed and reformed our own part of the Catholic Church ; but English persons are blinded by such an absurd argument through their persisting in calling Romanists Catholics instead of Roman Catholic, - the present sect of Romanists having originated in the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth.
The Lecturer proceeded to prove the points in which he considered we have been gainers by the Reformation, and also, as he said, to give credit to whom credit is due, and to mention some cheering features in the English Church before the Reformation. He proved that, instead of the un reformed church having been at unity in itself, it exhibited a state of religious hatred between the orders one against the other, wholly unequalled by the very worst exhibition of sectarian and party spirit in the present day.
The Lecturer ended by describing the manner in which our reformers proceeded in their reformation, retaining what was scriptural and primitive, whilst rejecting what was corrupt ; translating the old offices of their own church, and adopting whatever was excellent from the liturgies of other churches, adding new matter only where additions seemed to be necessary.
He concluded his lecture by reading part of Dean Comber’s eulogium on the reformed liturgy of the English Church, and by urging all present to take heed that they sought the help of God to enable them to live as baptised members of a reformed church ought to live ; seeing that the fact of merely being a member of a reformed church would not save un reformed souls.
The room was crowded ; the lecture was listened to with interest, and a most cordial vote of thanks was given to Mr. Enraght for his kindness.
Wiltshire Independent 20 February 1862
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Transcription by D. Sharp 2025