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Charges against Caroline

Divines.

towards the east, bowing to the altar upon approaches, in
coming and kneeling to the rail for the Sacrament, whereto
they force the people by denying the Sacrament to such
as will not, and further punishing them for the neglect:
for or by such things they subinduce the opinion of the
corporal Presence there." All such things they have
pressed by doctrine, example, and discipline, as most
necessary. 8. Discountenancing the religious observation
of the Lord's-day, in obedience to God; denying the
morality of the fourth Commandment to leave no other
ground for keeping a Sabbath than the Church's (i. e. their
own) appointment; and enforcing the observation of their
holydays and festivals, equal with, or above, the Lord's-
day, (by punishing people for working thereon, though
poor, or in harvest,) and requiring the observance of other
times for fasting, as being of peculiar holiness.
9. Com-
manding or commending sports to the younger people,
apt to make them lascivious, especially on the Lord's-day,
whereby they may be taken off from religious exercises by
vain and sensual delights: whence the great profanation
of that day, especially at wakes, by them so much com-
mended. 10. Teaching, venting, or insinuating the neces-
sity and sufficiency of blind obedience, either in terms, or
under the names of conformity and obedience to authority,
especially of the Church (i.e. their own authority), as
binding the conscience or inner man.

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III. In matters of Hope: teaching or insinuating the necessity-1. Of the outward work of Sacraments to salvation, and their conferring grace thereby, occasioning a superstitious esteem of the outward work, and resting therein, and great dishonour to the Sacraments by private administrations. 2. Of Confession of sins unto, and Absolution therefrom, by the priest. 3. Of his intercession and prayers for them, as of a mediator. 4. Of Absolution from Excommunication after death. Finally, in all things (not to enumerate more particulars), drawing near to the Romish fabrick of religion, for doctrine,

Caroline

Divines.

worship, discipline, and orders; it being, indeed, origin- Charges ally (by men of their own minds) perfectly fitted to all against their aforesaid purposes by the gradual corruption of, and additions to, the Christian religion [so far] as its foundations would admit; yea, by razing and defacing, or hiding some fundamentals of it, which they could not bring in square with their Babylonish machinations, and inclining to reunion with that Church as the accomplishment and establishment of their said ends. To that purpose— 1. Retain, reviving and giving reverence to popish names, as priest, altar, etc.: things, as vestures, church instruments, crosses or crucifixes, images in churches, etc.: gestures and forms of worship, as the aforementioned and others forms of discipline, as in their ordinations, consecrations, unctions, court proceedings, and censures. 2. Venting, publishing, and defending doctrines or tenets (general ones) in favour of it; as that the Church of Rome is a true Church, never erred in fundamentals, salvation ordinarily to be obtained in it, the Pope not Anti-Christ, etc.: and particular doctrines, concurring with it or leading to it; in sermons, discourses, acts, and books which have filled and freely passed the press, while those that opposed the same have been stopped and repressed. 3. Suffering, favouring, and patronizing popish recusants, priests, and jesuits, their actions and books." A Schedule annexed to a Petition presented to the Parliament from the County of Nottingham, complaining of Grievances under the Ecclesiastical Government by Archbishops, Bishops, etc., p. 8, and pp. 10-15. 4to. 1641.

c. 1643

'Having driven the good shepherds from the pastoral charge of their own flocks, and placed such hirelings as were loose in soul as the other strict, it is their [the prelates'] next diligence to prepare the sheep, to adapt people to receive without inquiry doctrines for authentick upon the credit of their priest. To this purpose, first, they indulge the vulgar in all ways of licentiousness,

Charges against Caroline

Divines.

sports, may-games, bear-baitings, yea, and those upon the Lord's-day. . . . This to incense the people against the severe discipline of the puritans, or to rock them so in a carnal way of liberty as not to awake and check at the design of thraldom, as better savouring of leeks and onions with sloth and security, than the desert way to the land of Canaan: then to wean men from scrutiny into Scripture, they preach ignorance to be the mother of devotion, the super-excellency of submission to the priest from whose lips we are to suck knowledge, bibles with comments are exploded, lectures silenced, to go to a sermon at the next church was heinous as a conventicle, though none were at their own, or perhaps worse than none; one hour, and just so much, must be galloped over in a forenoon homily by their sworn chaplain, who in the afternoon would hackney over a few formal collects, and then recreate his dull parish about a May-pole. Like the old pagans, they sumptuously adorn the churches, [using] rich copes, holy vestments, exquisite images, ravishing music: the sanctum sanctorum is bedressed with such wondrous ornaments, and applied to with so exact ceremony, as if God were corporally and only present upon the altar, and had confined his almightiness and all his attributes to a chalice, to be communicated by their priest at will, whose sanctity is permitted to tread the holy ground within the rails, while the contemned laity gaze without and adore. [They have] altar, priest, sacrifice, in emulation of the pomp of Aaron, as if we were still under the veil, which, secundum quid, was true, for it was to abuse and besot the blind parishioner to believe that there was some high mystery in the mere form of that stately worship, in the solemnity of that sensual service, upon which ravishments he might contentedly employ his outward sense, and there acquiesce and rest for his salvation, without trouble of more scrutiny into the ways of heaven." -The Second Part of the Interest of England considered, as it relates to the Government of the Church, pp. 11–13. 4to. 1645.

Opinions of Dr. Pusey and other Anglican
Theologians on certain modern

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I think that the attending Roman Services in England is quite unjustifiable, that the substituting an image of the B. Virgin for the Crucifix is profane.

There is absolutely no authority in the early Church for reservation except for the sick, nor for placing the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance or censing, still less of blessing the people with It. This last seems to me a most unjustifiable use of the Presence which He vouchsafes us. He gave it for one end. He has never authorized us to use His gracious Presence for another. No one has told us that He does bless us so.

It is this imitation of modern practices in the Roman Communion which repels people from us. It was a panic from things much less than this, which brought upon us the P.W.R. Act. That panic still exists.

I agree with you entirely that our Blessed Lord instituted the Sacrament to give us His Body and Blood, and that we might plead the memorial of His sacrifice, that adoration is a natural result of that Presence, but not the object of the institution, and that reservation for the purpose of adoration is not according to primitive usage which we profess to follow.

E. B. PUSEY.

1 This and the following letters were addressed to the Rev. C. N. Gray, Vicar of Helmsley, by whose permission they are here printed.-ED. 1904.

Anglican
Divines on
Roman
Practices.

June 11, 1882.

MY DEAR

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD,

The first case you mention is surely one of simple unfaithfulness. If a person is encouraged to frequent Roman Services in this country and also to communicate in our churches, he or she is encouraged to commit schismatical acts, and moreover to adopt a practice, which in natural consequence will lead to the adoption of Roman faith and worship 'pure and simple.'

2. The observance of the Month of Mary' is intensely Roman. I cannot conceive how any one calling himself an English Churchman, let alone an English priest, can adopt it, or acquiesce in it, or have any part in it whatsoever. Have such people never reflected on the practical upshot of Marianism?

3. The Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament for the sick is not permitted by our rubrics, although there may be cases in which the breach of the rubric in the Communion office might be well condoned. Still less is reservation for purposes of adoration simply, and with the additional rite of Benediction. This is purely Roman.

I quite agree with your distinction between the direct and the quasi accidental or inferential purposes of the institution. I adopt altogether as my own your words as to the wrongfulness of reservation for adoration simply,' or of use as a means of Benediction' among ourselves.

4. There can be no authority in our Church for the
observance of Corpus Christi day as a public festival. To
advertise the 'feast of Corpus Christi' for public observ-
ance appears to me quite undutiful. The case of a
Dedication Festival is different. Bishops usually sanction
proper psalms and lessons for such days, and they are, one
may say, Scriptural in their origin.
But if one may

publicly observe the Feast of Corpus Christi as such, why
not the Assumption as such, so far as authority for doing
so is concerned?
W. BRIGHT.

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