said, that they presume not to obey her monitions, mandates, and laws; and those who do the contrary, we do innodate with the like sentence of anathema."* The successor of Pius V., Pope Gregory XIII., pursued the same plan. One great object with Gregory was to excite rebellion in Ireland, in which he succeeded to a certain extent; though he had promised all the British dominions to the king of Spain, on condition of his conquering them, Gregory had a natural son, whom, in defiance of his contract with the Spanish monarch, he was desirous of making king of Ireland. This pope, in a bull bearing date February 25th, 1575, after denouncing Elizabeth as "hateful alike to God and man," calls upon the Irish to rebel against her authority to such as aided the leader of this treasonable enterprise, by this bull, the pope promised "a plenary indulgence and remission of all their sins, according to the form which is accustomed to be used for those who war against the Turks for the recovery of the holy land," &c.†

A still more recent instance of the exercise of this tyrannical power of the pope occurs in the excommunication of the late French Emperor Buonaparte, by Pope Pius VII. This same pope, who placed the imperial diadem on the head of Buona

*The bull of Pius V., from which the above extracts are taken, is given at length in "The Protestant," vol. i. p. 158-160.

+ Phelan's Policy of the Church of Rome.

parte, and blessed him as his dear son in the faith, in a bull at great length, bearing date July 10th, 1809, fulminates against him his anathema. This singular document shows that even in the nineteenth century, the pope of Rome has abated nothing of those arrogant pretensions of supremacy which were so fully exercised in the dark ages. "Let them know," says Pius VII. in this bull, "that by the law of Christ their sovereignty is subjected to our throne !"* Popery, in this point as in others, is unchanged. It has not abated aught of those pretensions, which endanger, whenever opportunity offers, the independence of every church, and of every state, which refuses submission to the authority of the see of Rome.

From this antichristian and tyrannical jurisdiction of the Romish see, the British church and nation were emancipated by the Reformation. The ancient independence of the British crown, and of the British church, was then successfully asserted, not only by the acts of the legislature, but by articles of religion drawn up by the church. In the preamble of the statutes of the 25th and 26th of Henry VIII., it is declared-" That the crown of England is independent, and that all classes of men, whether of the spirituality or of the temporality, owe obedience to it; that the church of England has been accustomed to exercise jurisdic

* This bull is given at length in "The Protestant," vol. iii. p. 10-21.

tions in courts spiritual, and that the encroachments of the bishops of Rome from ancient times had been checked by the king's renowned progenitors." The 28th of Henry VIII., an act "to extinguish the authority of the bishop of Rome," required the abjuration of that authority from the most considerable parts of the subjects of the realm, both civil and ecclesiastical; to maintain that authority subjected those who did so to the penalties of high treason. Bishop Burnett remarks, respecting the jurisdiction of the popes, that "appeals were made to them; they sent legates and bulls everywhere; they granted exemptions from the ordinary jurisdictions; and took bishops bound to them by oaths, that were penned in the form of oaths of fealty or homage. This was the first point that our reformers did begin with, both here and every where else, that so they might remove that which was an insuperable obstruction, till it was first taken out of the way, to every step that could be made towards a reformation." The 37th Article of the Church of England contains her protest against Papal supremacy, and a declaration of the independent rights of the British church and “The plain meaning of the article," says Burnett, "is this, that no estate, or sort of men, is exempted from the supreme civil power amongst us; that none but the magistrate has a right to use the civil sword, or to enforce, by external compulsion, the observance of laws; and that no foreign

crown.

power, particularly that of Rome, has any manner of jurisdiction over any of the king's subjects." The injunction of Queen Elizabeth, referred to in the body of the Article, as explanatory of its meaning, thus defines the nature and extent of the power intended, by what is usually termed the king's headship over all estates, ecclesiastical or civil. "Under God, to have sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons born within these her realms, dominions, and countries, of what estate, either ecclesiastical or temporal, soever they be, so as no other foreign power shall, or ought to have, any superiority over them."*

*See a defence of this article in "Reasons for Attachment and Conformity," &c., chap. iv. p. 200-211.

PART II.

DOCTRINES.

CHAPTER I.

THE SACRAMENTS.