APOSTOLIC
643
APOSTOLIC
everj- Wessex family. The Romescot was made ob-
ligatory, by Edward the Confessor, on every monas-
tery and household in possession of land or cattle
to the yearly value of thirty pence.
The Xoniian C'onfiiiest (lOdli) wrought no change in the religion of ICngland. St. Aii.-ielin of Canter- bury (1093-110'.)) testified to the supremacy of the Roman PoiititT in his writings (in .Matt., .\vi) and by his act.s. When pressed to surrender his right of ap|)cal to Rome, he answered the king in court: " \'ou «ish me to swear never, on any account, to appeal in England to Blessed Peter or his Vicar; this, I say, ought not to \x commanded by you, who are a Christian, for to swear this is to abjure Hlc-isod Peter; he who abjures Blessed Peter un- doubtedly abjures Christ, who made him Prince over his Church." St. Thomas Becket shed his blood in defence of the liberties of the Church against the encroachments of the Norman king (1170). Gros- seteste, in the thirteenth centurj', writes more for- cibly on the Pope's authority over the whole Church than any other ancient English bishop, although he resisted an ill-advised appointment to a canonry made by the Pope. In the fourteenth centurj' Duils Scotus teaches at Oxford "that they are exconunu- nicated as heretics who teach or hold anjihing dif- ferent from what the Roman Church holds or teaches." In 1411 the English bishops at the Sy- nod of I-ondon condemn WyditTe's proposition "that it is not of necessity to salvation to hold that the Roman Church is supreme among the Churches." In 1535 Blessed John I'isher, Bishop of Rochester, is put to death for upholding against Henry VIII the Pope's supremacy over the English Church. The most striking piece of evidence is the wording of the oath taken by archbishops Ix-fore entering into of- fice: "I, Robert, .\rchbisho[) of Canterburj-, from this hour forward, will be faithful and oljedient to St. Peter, to the Holy Apostolic Roman Church, to my Lord Pope Celestine, and his succe.ssors canon- ically succcecling ... I will, sa\ing my order, give aid to defend and to maintain sigainst every man the primacy of the Roman Church and the royalty of St. Peter. I will visit the threshold of the .\postIes everj- three years, either in person or by my deputy, unless I be absolved by apostolic ilispensation. . . So help me God and these Holy Gospels." (Wilkins, Concilia .\ngli!P, II, 199.) Chief Justice Bracton (1260) lays down the civil law of this country thus: "It is to be noted concerning the jurisdiction of superior and inferior courts, that in the first place as the Lord Pope hiis ordinarj- jurisdiction over all in spirituals, so the king has, in the realm, in tem- porals." The line of demarcation Ix^twcen things spiritual and temporal is in many cases blurred and uncertain; the two powers often overlap, and con- flicts are unavoidable. During five hundred years such conflicts' were frequent. Their ^erj- recurrence, however, proves that England acknowledged the papal supremacy, for it rei)uires two to make a quarrel. The complaint of one side was always that the other encroached upon its rights. Henrj- VIII himself, in 153.3. .still pleaded in the Roman Courts for a divorce. Had he succeeded, the supremacy of the Pope would not ha\c found a more strenuous defender. It was only after his failure that he (|ues- tioned the authority of the tribunal to which ho had hinu'elf appealed. In 1531 he was, by Act of Par- liament, made the Supreme Head of the English Church. The bishops, instead of swearing allegiance to the Pope, now swore allegiance to the King, with- out any saving clause. Blessed John Fisher was the only bishop who refused to take the new oath; his martyrdom is the first witness to the breach of con- tinuity between the old English and the new Angli- can Chvirch. Heresy stepped in to widen the l)reach.
The Thirty-nine Articles teach the Lutheran I.— 41
doctrine of justification by faith alone, deny
purgatorj', reduce the seven sacraments to two, in-
sist on the fallibility of the Church, establish the
kind's supremacy, and deny the pope's jurisdiction
in England. M;iss was abolished, and the Real Pres-
ence; the form of ordination was so altered to suit
the new views on the priesthood that it became in-
effective, and the succession of priests failed as well
as the succession of bishoiw. (See Anglica.n Oit-
DKHS.) Is it possible to imagine that the framers
of such vital alterations thought of "continuing"
the e.xisting Church? When the hierarchical frame-
work is destroyed, when the doctrinal foundation is
removed, when every stone of the edifice Is freely re-
arranged to suit individual tastes, then there is no
continuity, but coUape. The old fa<;ade of Battle
Abbey still stands, also parts of the outer wall, and
the old name remains; but pass through the portal,
and one faces a stately, newish, comfortable man-
sion; green lawns and shrubs hide old foundations
of duircli and cloisters; the monks' scriptorium and
storerooms still stand to sadden the visitor's mood.
Of the abbey of 1.5.38, the abbey of 1906 only keeps
the nuisk, the diminished sculptures and the stones —
a fitting image of the old Church and the new.
Phe-sent St.\ge. — Dr. James Gairdner, whose "His- tory of the English Church in the 16th Century" lays bare the essentially Protestant spirit of the English Reformation, in a letter on "Continuity" (reproduced in the Tablet, '20 January, 1906), shifts the controversy from historical to doctrinal ground. "If the country", he says, "still contained a com- munity of Christians — that is to say, of real believers in the great gospel of sjdvation, men who still accepted the old creeds, and had no doubt Christ died to save them — then the Church of Eng- land remained the same Church as before. The old sj-stem was preserved, in fact all that was really essential to it, and as regards doctrine nothing was taken away except some doubtful scholastic prop- ositions." (See Apostolicity; Peteb, Saint; An- tioch; Alexanduia; Gheek Chijrch; Anglicanism; Anglican Orders.)
Sk-mehia, Dogma, gerarchia e culto iwUa china primitiva (Rome. 1902. 2(1 eil.. 1000; tr. London. 1900): Orisar, GeschichU Roma urul der PUpsle im Miltrlolter (Freiburg. 1901): UuciiESNE, EglUea tcparira (2il eti.. Paris, ISft'i); I.INGARD, Iluit. and AntiquUifS of the Anfflo-Saxon Church (l.st e.l.. Ixjndon, 1845; reprint, ibid. 1899); Anderdon. Urilainn Earli/ Faith (l^ndon. 1888); Mackinlat. Thr Alccstcr Lectures: Continuity or Collapse (I2th ed., London. 1900); MoYKH. Aspects of Anglicanism; and answer to Gairdnrr, Letter on Continuity (London, 1906).
J. WiLHELM.
Apostolic TTnion of Secular Priests, The, an a.ssociation of secular priests who ob.scrve a simple rule embodying the common duties of their state, affortl mutual assistance in the functions of the ministry, and keep themselves in the spirit of their holy vocation by spiritual conferences. Its object is the sanctification of the secular clergj- in their missionary hvcs among the people. Its spirit is a personal love for Jesus Christ. It was established in the seventeenth century by the \'enerable Bar- tholomew Holzhauser, and was revived and reorgan- ized in France about forty years ago by Canon Lebcurier, who is still its president-general. One of the first acts of Pius X, 20 December, 1903. was to take the Union under his special protection, whilst increasing its indulgences and spiritual favours. The Brief of the Ilolv Father (Acta S. Sed., XXXVI, .")94) recites the esta1)lishmcnt of the Union in 1862, and its spread to a great number of dioceses through- out the Christian world, in France, Belgium, .Austria. Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Unite<l States, Canaila. South America. .Australia, and parts of .Asia. The Holy Father proclaims the fact that he was a member of it. and had experienced its utility and excellence, and admits the advantages derived from
