THE BEST RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR NEWSPAPER. It has Correspondents all over the Globe. It furnishes a rich variety of reading, religious, literary, scien- PRINTED ON FINE PAPER, AND BOUND IN EMBOSSED CLOTH, Each volume contains ONE HUNDRED LETTERS, selected from the familiar and popu- Volume Second has also a SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR, and a REVIEW OF His Life and "This wise, good, and entertaining book ought to be in every American household. There is hardly a topic relating to art, or letters, or living charities or household joys and sorrows, which is not touched upon by his master hand."-New-York Journal of Com- The two volumes will be sent by mail, post-paid, to any address for $2.50. Any person sending a new subscriber for one year to the NEWYORK OBSERVER and $4.00 will receive both volumes; a new subscriber and $3.00, will receive either Vol- Old subscribers sending two dollars in addition to their usual subscription will receive both volumes,-or either volume for their usual subscription and one dollar additional. Address, NEW YORK OBSERVER. CONTENTS OF NO. CLXV. I. The Reformation Settlement of the Church of II. Mr. Arnold and his 'Discourses in America' The Apostolic Fathers. Part II. S. Ignatius-S. Polycarp. Revised Texts, with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations, and Translations. By J. B. LIGHTFOOT, D.D., D.C.L., L.L.D., Bishop of Durham. 1885. Three Vols. A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1852. By the late CHARLES C. F. GREVILLE, Esq., Clerk of the Council. London; Long- History, Biography, and Travels.-John de Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland; or, Twenty years of a Parliamentary Republic. Footsteps of Jeanne d'Arc: a Pilgrimage. The Bronte Family. Italy and her Invaders. History of Rome and the Roman People from its Origin to the Establishment of the Christian Empire. The Fall of Constantinople: Being the Story of the Fourth Crusade. The River Column: a Narrative of the Advance of the River Column of the Nile Expeditionary Force, and its Return Down the Rapids. Ireland under the Tudors. Cassell's Illustrated History. Cassell's History of England. The Dawn of the Nineteenth Century in England: a Social Sketch of the Times. The Palace and the Hospital: Chronicles of Greenwich. John Bunyan : his Life, Times, and Work. The Life of William Carey, D.D., Shoemaker and Missionary. Dictionary of Politics, Sciencs, and Art.-England's Supremacy: its Sources, Economies, and Dangers. New India, or India in Transition. Ideas About India. The History of Constitutional Reform in Great Britain and Ireland, with a Ful' Account of the Three Great Measures of 1832, 1867, 1884. The Thre Belles, Lettres, Poetry, and Fiction.-The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle. The Works of W. M. Thackeray. Specimens of English Prose Style from Malory to Macaulay. Italian Popular Tales. The Open Air. Letters and Journals of Jonathan Swift. The Very b. Tiresias: and other Poems. Novels. M. Rouam's Fine-Art Publica Illustrated Books. Serial Volumes. Gift Books. Miscellaneous. Theology, Philosophy, and Philology.-The Continuity of Christian Thought: a Study of Modern Theology in the Light of its History. The Mys of God: a Consideration of some Intellectual Hindrances to Faith. irist and Christianity. Movements of Religious Thought in Britain during the Nineteenth Century. The Social Results of Early Christianity. The Sarco- phagus of Anchesrāneferab, Queen of Ahmes II., King of Egypt `bout B.C. 564-526. The Seven Gifts. Jacob Boehme: His Life and Teching; or, Studies in Theosophy. The Biblical Scheme of Nature and Man. Some of the Great Preachers of Wales. A Dictionary of Islam. The treasury of David. Zechariah: His Visions and Warnings. The people's Bible. Scottish Philosophy. A New English Dictionary, on Historical principles. A Concise Dictionary of the English Language, Literary, Scientific, Etymo- logical, and pronouncing. The Politics of Aristotle. Sermons. Books ART. I.- The Reformation Settlement of the Church of England. THE Church, the State, and the relations between them, are subjects which, in the region of speculation, might give rise to endless controversies. It must, therefore, be some advantage to be able to look at them in the light of facts and history. The Report of the Ecclesiastical Courts' Commission, with the evidence brought before the Commissioners, will greatly help in this direction, though it is marvellous how many things of supreme importance to the inquiry have been passed over. We can set aside the special theories of the different witnesses, look only at their statements, compare them with each other, and test them by what is really known. It may be said on the strength of the evidence that there is a general agreement among all parties that, whatever else the Reformation did, it gave to the sovereign that supremacy over the Church which was previously held by the Bishop of Rome. In the time of King Henry it was called the headship. But the nature of that headship, as exercised by the Pope, and when vested in the civil ruler, may not be exactly the same. A bishop is a church officer, but whether or not the position of a Christian sovereign in the Church differs from that of any other layman, is a question on which opinions differ. The bare fact from which we must start is that the Bishop of Rome before the Reformation was supreme head of the Church of England. But the meaning of the supremacy, even when applied to the Pope, is not so definite as at first sight it seems. The extent claimed by the Pope, and that admitted by the nation, may not have been the same. The jurisdiction exercised by ecclesiastical courts or Church officers may have been derived from the Bishop of Rome. He confirmed all appointments of archbishops and bishops. He had great benefices in his gift, and, as head of the Church, drew immense revenues from the country. This supremacy, indeed, may have been a usurpation. It may have grown in spite of the repeated protests of the nation, but as a fact before the Reformation the Pope was in actual possession of supremacy to the extent that he claimed. The origin and history of this headship may be left an open question, but as a fact it existed in all its fulness in things spiritual, and by an apparently inevitable law it reached things secular, crossing into the domain of the temporal sovereign. The transfer of the supremacy to the king was not effected at once, nor was the extent to which it was ultimately carried contemplated by those who first promoted it. Throughout Europe there was a cry for the reformation of the Church, as the expression then was, in its head and members.' The rule of the 'spirituality' was too oppressive to be longer endured. Those in England who wished reformation were not merely or mainly those who wished to set aside the traditional dogmas and ceremonies. They admitted the supremacy of the Roman See, but wished to rectify abuses in its exercise. The matter of the kings's divorce suit was but an accident which tended to further what was contemplated for reasons altogether different. The Parliament of 1529-30, held after the Queen's case had gone to Rome, but before any decision was made, passed Bills which were regarded as injurious to the Church, but which were in reality only salutary measures of reform. One of these was to regulate the fees on probate of wills. These were paid to some ecclesiastical officer or officers, and were so heavy as often to leave but little to the relatives of the deceased. Another was to regulate the mortuaries or fees at burials. These were originally a voluntary offering, but, like tithes and other Church dues voluntary in their origin, had become compulsory, and the extortions of the clergy under the form of mortuaries were the cause of continual strife between them and their parishioners. A third Bill was to forbid the clergy |