Palmer id 52 ?1 AIDS TO REFLECTION SEEMINGLY DOUBLE CHARACTER ESTABLISHED CHURCH, WITH EEFEBENCE TO THE FOUNDATION OF A "PROTESTANT BISHOPRIC AT JERUSALEM, RECENTLY ANNOUNCED IN THE PRUSSIAN STATE GAZETTE. BY WILLIAM PALMER, M.A. FELLOW AND TTJTOK OF ST. MAKY MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND DEACON IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. OXFORD, JOHN HENRY PAKKER: J. G. F. AND J. RIVINGTON, LONDON, MDCCCXLI. oxFORn: PRINTEn BY I. SHRIMPTON. TO ALL GOOD CATHOLICS CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND TO ALL FOREIGNERS, WHO SO MUCH AS NAME THE NAME OP CHRIST, AND ARE SINCERELY DESIROUS OP COMING TO THE TRUTH, AND OF RECOVERING THAT PRINCIPLE OP CATHOLIC ORTHODOXY AND UNITY, WHICH BY OUR SINS, NO LESS THAN BY THEIR OWN, THEY HAVE LOST, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED, WITH THE EARNEST PRAYER THAT THEIR DESIRE (which IS NO LESS OURS ALSo) MAY BE ACCOMPLISHED. INTRODUCTION. It has recently been announced in the Prussian State Gazette that a "Protestant Bishopric" has been founded at Jerusalem, by His Prussian Majesty, with the cordial co-operation of the British Govern ment and the Heads of the English Church, for the joint representation of the whole of "Protestant Christendom" in the eyes of the Greek and Latin Churches and of the Mahometan Power as " one Church"— called " the Protestant," "the Reformed," or "the Evangelical Church :" It has been asserted in the same document that "all parties agreed in the conviction that the diversities of Christian wor ship, according to languages and nations, and accord ing to the peculiarities and historical development of each nation, that is to say, in the Protestant Church, are upheld by a superior unity, the Plead of the Church Himself; and that in this unity, to which all the diversities refer, as to their centre, is the- foundation of true Christian toleration. :" It appears to me that if any such principle or position were really to be admitted by our Church, she would unchurch herself, and render it impossi ble for any one either to justify his own allegiance to her on Catholic principles, or prove the duty of similar allegiance to others ; and as an assertion so publicly made as the above, and on such very high authority, if uncontradicted and unprotested against, must seem to the world to carr}' witli it and imply the assent of our Spiritual Rulers, and of ourselves and our whole Church ; and as every individual, even the meanest, is alike interested in the existence and Catholic position of his Church, I have thought it my duty to put together and offer to the considera tion of members of our Communion, some notices and documents which will be found contained in the following pages, and which I hope may tend to awaken reflection on a subject of the most over whelming importance. It wiU be m.j object, after having 1st. Laid before the reader those Prussian docu ments which are the foundation of my case, to shew 2ndJy. That the position asserted in the Prussian State Gazette to have been luade the basis of a convention by the Heads of the English Church, acting in her name, was urged upon the Church a century and a half ago, by the whole force of the Government of William IIL, and was even then re jected in the most marked way by the Convocation of the Clergy- ; 3rdly. That the same position was similarly re jected not many years afterwards by certain non- juring Bishops in a correspondence with the Eastern Cathohc Church, which anathematizes both the prin ciple of Protestantism and its two leading sects by name. 4thly. That the Convocation in the time of William IIL, as well as the nonj uring Bishops after wards, (and the Eastern Catholic Church,) had good reason for disclaiming all community of prin ciple with what was called the Protestant religion in general, and with the sects of the Lutherans and Calvinists in particular. Sthly. That nevertheless the influence of the civil government and of its two contrary religious Esta blishments in England and Scotland in the course of the hundred and fifty years which have elapsed since the Revolution, has prevailed so far towards establish ing the position then rejected by the Church, that it may perhaps seem doubtful whether the Authorities of the Church of England do not now assent to it, and, in the particular case in question, whether the as sertion of the Prussian State Gazette may not possibly be true ; in which case nothing more than the formal assent of a Convocation or Synod to the same prin ciple and position is wanting to make union with the Eastern Church impossible, and to destroy the Catholic character of the English Church. 6thly. That notwithstanding these unfavourable appearances, there are still signs that more Catholic principles and feelings are not extinct either in the public itself, or in those Heads of the Church who. appear most prominently before the public in the matter in question ; and that in spite of much inconsistency and ambiguity, and many difficulties, there is still ground for hope that there exists a real desire for unity with the Eastern Church, and that whenever it comes to be understood that it is im possible to treat at once, upon the principle of mutual recognition, with Catholic Churches and Protestant Persuasions, the English Church will seek to correct and convert the Lutherans and Calvinists, rather than by owning one common Protestant religion with them as they are now, incur the anathemas of the Eastern as well as the Western Latin Church, make reconcihation impossible, and give up the Cathohc principle, by which alone she exists herself as a true Church. 7thly and lastly. That there is good reason to expect and believe that if the English Church should ever openly and sincerely disavow the heretical principle of Protestantism, or of comniunity in reli gion with the Protestant Sects as such, and attempt to open communications with the Eastern Catholic Church for the restoration of unity upon Catholic principles, her advances would be met in a reason able and Christian spirit. SECTION I. Prussian documents asserting that the Heads of the English Church have admitted in her name the position that all Protestant Christendom is one Church, holding one common religion, in Avhicli all the diversities are upheld by a superior unity. I. From the Prussian State Gazette. Berlin, Nov. 6. " The result of the negotiations commenced by Prussia in order to obtain for the Evangelical Christians of the Ger man nation the same advantages in the Turkish empire, especially in Palestine and Syria, as are enjoyed by the Christians of the Latin and Greek Churches, excites general interest. It is in fact so interesting an event in modern history, that it seems desirable to obviate involuntary mis understandings by a siinple narrative of the occasion and object of the negotiation. "The concord ofthe great Powers of Europe, to which the Turkish empire is indebted for its independence and the world for peace, offered an opportunity essentially to im prove the situation of the German Evangelical Christians in the East. To profit by this opportunity in a manner worthy of its political position was considered by Prussia as a sacred duty, especially because it might be foreseen with much probability, that the great impulse given to the com mercial intercourse between nations would also increase the 10 connection of German Protestants in the East, and perhaps lead to the foundation of settlements by them in those countries. " Seen in a general point of view, it might perhaps have appeared sufficient for the promotion of science, industry, and trade, and also for the facilitating settlement, if Prussia had only aimed at procuring for all its subjects inde pendence, without difference of religion, as far as they needed it, whether as travellers or as settlers; that legal protection for their persons and property the Hatti Scherif of Gulhane had promised ; but in the pursuance of these objects, it appeared in what a much more advantageous position the King was, in respect to his Roman Catholic, than in respect to his Protestant subjects. " These objects appeared to be closely connected with certain religious rights and privileges. The Latin and Greek Churches in the East are distinct bodies, with common discipline and order, founded on ancient treaties, and therefore enjoy in this capacity the benefit of being acknowledged, which includes the most important political rights. The Greek Church enjoys the protection of the Emperor of Russia ; and the Latin Church that of the great Roman Catholic Powers. The Prussian government needs only to join in the endeavours of the latter, sufficientl}'^ to remove all obstacles that must still exist to the particular interests of its Roman Catholic subjects. " The Protestant Church, on the other hand, was destitute, up to the latest times, of all legal recognition. What State of the Continent could more naturally desire that in the present state of the world they also might enjoy similar corporate privileges than Prussia, which has among its subjects more than half of all the members of the Protest ant Church in Germany ? and ought not the Protestant Church, as a member of the Catholic Church of Christ, to n possess the right of assembling its adherents on thc scene of the origin of Christianity, and freely to proclaim Evan gelical truth according to their Confession and Liturgy ? " Under these circumstances the Prussian government could not in duty, be deterred by the difficulties of various kinds which opposed the attainment of an object so in timately connected with the religious feelings of the nation. The question was, with a just appreciation of all the cir cumstances, to look for the way which might most certainly lead to the proposed end : partial negotiations with the Porte, notwithstanding the very amicable relations between the two governments, offered no prospect of real success. The Turkish government does not yet feel the immediate connection of Prussia with the East; the Porte knows Prussia only as a great European Power, by whose agree ment with other great Powers its safety is guaranteed. " The relations of Great Britain with the Porte are very different. England, by its naval power and its commerce, possesses great influence in the East. A union with England, whose Church, in its origin and doctrines, is closely allied to the German Evangelical Church, appeared, therefore, to be the surest means of obtaining the important object. "The negotiations to be opened for this purpose depended, however, on the previous question, whether Great Britain was inclined to do justice to the independence and national honour of the German Evangelical Church, and to treat this affair in perfect union with Prussia on the fixed principle that Protestant Christendom, under the protection of England and Prussia, should appear to the Turkish govern ment as one power, and thus obtain from it all the advan tages of being legally recognised. " The steps which were taken to settle this previous question had the most satisfactory results. Not only did 12 the British government shew itself ready with decided good-will to enter into the subject on the basis proposed, but the heads of the English Church entered with warm interest into the proposal. All parties agreed in the con viction that the diversities of Christian icorship, according to languages and nations, and according to the peculiarities and historical development of each nation — that is to say, in the Protestant Church, — are upheld by a superior unity, the Head of the Church Himself ; and that in this unity, to wliich all the diversities refer, as to their centre, is the foundation of true Christian toleration. Besides this conviction. His Majesty the King too loarmly participates in the religious sympathies of the nation, ivhich are so intimately interwoven with the origin of the Augsbourg Confession, and the recol lection of the champions of the faith of the German Pro testant Church, to have consented to any thing contrary to this firm common basis of the entire German Protestant Church. "By a cordial co-operation directed in this spirit a distinct Bishopric has been founded in Jerusalem, in which all Protest ant Christians may find a coinmon support and point of union, in respect of the Turkish government, and in all cases when their representation as one Church may be necessary ; while at the same time the German Protestants preserve the inde pendence of their Church. With respect to their particular confession and liturgy, his Majesty the King provides one-half of the expense of the Bishopric, and he participates therefore with the Croicn of England in the right of nominating the Bishop. "Thus the religious wants of the new Bishopric would be provided for ; but as a religious community cannot be blessed with prosperity, except in union with the instruction of youth and the care of the sick, a still greater support is to be expected for this purpose from the pious interest and 13 charity of the Protestant Christians in Prussia and other German countries. " The foundation of an hospital is specially important, in which travellers, who will be more numerously attracted to Jerusalem by scientific enquiries, religious interest, or other objects, may be received, in case they should need assistance. " In reference to the above, the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs has addressed two circulars to the Provincial govern ments, and to the Consistories, recapitulating the preceding statements, and informing thcm that it is His Majesty's pleasure that a general collection should be made in all the Protestant Churches of the Prussian monarchy; the sum collected to be sent to the Minister, M. Eichorn. "The Consistories are especially desired to take into con sideration the important object to which the collection is to be applied, and as His Majesty the King has this object so much at heart, they are enjoined to impress it on the minds of their Profe^tawif brethren." — Prussian State Gazette, Nov. 17. II. The following is the circular which M. Eichorn, Minis ter of religious worship, addressed for this purpose to each of the Regencies of the kingdom : — " His Majesty the King has taken advantage of his par ticipation in the preservation of peace in the East, to pro cure for the future a protection for the Evangelical Church in Turkey, similar to that enjoyed by the Greek and Latin Churches in that country. As this affair is connected with the most important political rights, to the privation of which Evangelical Christians were heretofore exposed by the violent and arbitrary conduct of the local authorities, the advantage which His Majesty hasendeavoured to obtain 14 for them by his infiuence is so much the greater, as, setting aside scientific interests and the advancement of religion, which inspire a superior ardour, the progress of commerce will hereafter attract a greater number amongst them to create important establishments. In consequence of these considerations, the King has not hesitated, in concert with Great Britain, to make considerable sacrifices out of his private fortune, in order to secure for ever for the German Evangelical Church, which is the mother of all the Evangeli cal Confessions which exist, a position in the country where Christianity was produced, in harmony with her dignity and grandeur, beside the Latin and Greek Churches." " A church will be speedily built at Jerusalem, for the German Protestants. It will be opened for their worship, according to their Confession and their Liturgy. But to secure this object, an hospital must be constructed for Evangelical travellers of small fortune, that scientific or religious pursuits may attract to Jerusalem. It will be necessary, likewise, to found a school. It is not necessary to explain the intimate relation which exists between these institutions and the influence of religion. His Majesty has, in consequence, commanded that, for the completion of this object, a general collection shall be made in the Evangelical Churches throughout the Prussian Monarchy. The Regency is invited to take the necessary measures to effect this collection. They will send me the sums col lected. The Royal Consistory shall receive a private cir cular, announcing the Sunday fixed for this collection, and will appoint the Clergymen who are to preside at it. " The Minister of Public Worship. EICHORN." III. The view taken of this transaction in Prussia may be further illustrated by the following extract from an 15 article in the Allgemeine Zeitung, which appeared in the Conservative Journal, of November 20. " Through the activity of the Evangelical Missionaries, a number of Jews at Jerusalem had been converted to Christianity, including many distinguished men of learning, and thus had a small Evangelical congregation been formed at Jerusalem. Neither the Catholic nor the Greek Church can complain of having been despoiled, for these converts from Judaism belonged to neither. If, however, they fear to be outstripped by a greater extension of the Evangelical Church in Palestine, let them exert that mental and spirit ual energy which God has given them, to awaken a con viction that the Christian doctrine and a Christian life are manifested by them in a greater degree of purity. From this noble contest they are in no way excluded ; and in the place of those revolting dissensions and that selfish jealousy, which characterized the conduct of European nations in the Holy Land at the time of the crusades, may we now behold the noblest emulation of which the world has ever had a knowledge. The establishment at Jerusalem of an Evangelical congregation, with Ecclesiastical endowments, and by the protection of England and Prussia, under the guardianship of the Porte, shielded against the oppressions to which Evangelical Christians have hitherto been exposed in the East, is a germ of Christianity from which great future results may be anticipated ; but as at all times a true spirit of Christian activity without has served to quicken the fruits of faith within, so has this foundation in Jerusalem called into life one of the most momentous appearances ever witnessed by Europe. As two parents in their love towards tlieir child enter into a more exalted union, even so the Evan gelical Churches of Prussia and England, hitherto divided, have, in this daughter Church of Jerusalem, tendered to each 16 other the hand of true union. It is not contemplated indeed that the English Church should abandon her institutions for those of Prussia, or the Prussian hers for those of England; but the two Churches, by their recent act, have mutually recognised that, in their relations to each other, their constitutional forms are non-essential, the union in spirit the essential ; — their conviction of the existence of this true union they have practically manifested by the establishment of a daughter Church, in which the nomination of the Ecclesiastics shall be vested alternately in Prussia and England; in which the Augsbourg Coiifession and the Thirty-nine Articles are recognised as founded in an intimate community of faith ; in which the rites of the English and Prussian Churches are to be accepted as the simultaneous expression of one and the same Evangelical Christianity. The conquest of Constan tine, the fortifying of Paris, the expulsion of a Queen from Spain, and a hundred other events that our time has wit nessed, may wear a more pompous look, and may, at the first glance, appear of greater importance than this small commencement of a united Evangelical congi-egation at Jerusalem ; but whoever is really acquainted with the affairs of the Levant, will recognise in this unostentatious com mencement the germ of a great development. The grain of mustard seed will be seen to grow up and to shoot forth its branches : nor can the present age shew any thing more truly great than this intimate recognition and approach to each other of two brothers, the English nation and the most important race of Northern Germany, — nothing nobler than this association of two brothers in the most exalted aim of man. England and Prussia have here found a point of union on which the blessing of God may rest ^" * See also Section V. iii. p. 74, where two extracts are given from another Prussian document of authoritv. SECTION H. That the position asserted in the Prussian State Gazette to have been made the basis of a convention by the Heads of the English Church, acting in her name, was urged upon the Church a century and a half ago, by the whole force of the Government of William III., and Avas even then rejected in the most marked way by the Convocation of the Clergy ; I. The civil government having disestablished the whole Church in Scotland and having set up a sect of Calvinistic Protestantism in its room, displaced the raost eminent of the Bishops in England, and thrust others into their Sees who were willing either to wink at or defend the Presbyterian Establishment in Scotland as a branch of one common Protestant religion, caused a number of those Bishops to prepare a measure for the mutual recognition and intercommunion of the two Establishments, which would have been a virtual surrender of the Catholic principle still remaining in our own ; and this measure was only defeated by the loyalty of the inferior Clergy and the attitude of the nonj uring Bishops, who would have been joined by all the sound members of the Enghsh Establish ment if their rehgion had been tampered with in any essential point. The new government at the same time viewing the English Church, which it found in possession, in relation to the Scotch Establishment, which it called into existence, and the kindred sects of Holland and Ger many, to which it was allied, as no more than one political form of a common substance ; and having based both its own existence and that of its double religion, together with the tenure of the crown, so far as it had the power to do 18 so, upon the same common substance, forced the Prelates of the Church to administer to the Sovereign, at his corona tion, an oath, not, as before, to " protect the Holy Church of God," " to grant and preserve unto the Bishops and Churches committed unto their charge all canonical privi leges, and due law and justice, and to protect and defend them, as every good King in his kingdom ought, in right, to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government" — not this Catholic oath, but an ambigu ous promise to maintain " the Protestant Reformed religion," as then "by law established." This Form professed indeed plainly enough to be a recogni tion and perpetuation ofthe same Church and religion as had been up to that time and was then by law established ; which protested perhaps against this or that accident of some other Churches, (so far as to differ is to protest,) and might, so far, be called Protestant, but was essentially Catholic, one with them as a Church, and diverse from all sects. The expression itself was nowise inconsistent with, but very nearly alike with a clause which had been in the same oath before, by which the King promised " to grant and keep, and by his oath confirm, to the people of England, the laws and customs to them granted by the Kings of England, his lawful and religious prede cessors ; and namely, the laws, customs, and franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious King St. Edward, his predecessor, according to the laws of God, the true profession of the Gospel established in this kingdom, and agreeing to the prerogative of the Kings thereof, and the ancient customs of this realm." The new form was there fore naturally taken by all good Christians in the Church of England to differ in nothing from the form which it supplanted, except in this, that it added some apparent pledge that no future Sovereign or government, (and least 19 of all that political party which then ruled,) should ever endanger the Church as then established by any vio lation of the laws hke that of James IL, or any change of them such as we have seen since, in favour of Popery. But while the new phraseology of the coronation oath thus pro fessed for itself to do no more than add additional security to tvhat existed, and was in that sense only received by the Church and by those Church people who, by Bishop Bur net's confession, would have sooner foUowed the nonjuring Bishops than submitted to an intercommunion with the sects, and while all the former Catholic language and many phrases even in the coronation office itself remained still unchanged and in force, and the Church itself was con tinued on its former basis, without any destruction or re creation ; still the evident tendency, and indeed, as we may collect from other circumstances, the secret wish of the political power which imposed the new form of oath was, surreptitiously and by implication, if that could have been done, to change the whole nature and basis of our Church, and instead of a Divine Hierarchy and Society, obliged by the law of its being to refuse communion to human sects, (however Protestant they might be) to sub stitute a mere political establishment, which should be only a form or confession of general Protestantism, and capable of being professed and maintained without inconsistency by the same power that had already set up the " Sister Establishment " of Presbyterian Calvinism in Scotland. II. Extract from Burnetts History of his own Time. " Tlie Clergy generally took the oaths, but with too manj;- reservations and distinctions The King was suspected by them hy reason of the favour shewed to Dissenters, but chiefly for his abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland and his consenting to the setting up Presbytery there Those B 2 20 •who did not carry this so far as to think, as some said they did, that the Church was to be pulled down ; yet said, a latitudinarian party -(ias like to prevail Some angry men at Oxford .... began to treat them as Socinians Some of the Bishops who had already incurred the sus pension for not taking the oaths to the Government, spread these slanders. Six Bishoprics happened to fall within this year, (1689) .... And the persons promoted to these Sees were, generally, men of those (i. e. Latitudi narian) principles. " His present IMajesty had promised in that Declaration that he brought over with him, to endeavour an union between the Church and the Dissenters By a special Commission under the Great Seal ten Bishops and twenty Divines were empowered to meet and prepare such altera tions as might he fit to lay before the Convocation The most rigid either never came to our meetings, or they soon withdrew from us, declaring themselves dissatisfied with every thing of that nature They said that the altering the customs and Constitidion of our Church, &c." . . . [A BiU for a ' Comprehension'' had been brought into Parliament in 1689, but both Houses had set it aside and petitioned the King to call a Convocation ac cording to the ancient practice and usage of the king dom The Lord Privy Seal (Hahfax) and the Bishop of Salisbury were angry with the Commons' address to the King the day before, desiring him to support and defend the Church of England according to his former declaration, and to call a Convocation of the Clergy, which the Bishop said would be the utter ruin of the Comprehension Scheme On the 13th of Septemher a Commission Aras issued to ten Bishops and twenty other Divines, and Dr. Tillotson drew up on the same day a paper 21 headed " Concessions whicli will probably be made for the union of Protestants" — of which the 6th and 7th ran thus : 6. " That for the future, those who have been ordained in any of the foreign Reformed Churches, be not required to be re -ordained here to render them capable of preferment in this Church. 7. "That for the future, none be capable of any Ecclesias tical benefice or preferment in the Church of England that shall be ordained in England othervrise than by Bishops ; and that those who have been ordained only by Presbyters, shall not be compeUed to renounce then' former Ordination. But because many have and do stiU doubt of the vahdity of such Ordination where Episcopal Ordination may be had and is by law required, it shall be sufficient for such persons to receive Ordination from a Bishop in tins or the like form, ' If thou art not akeady ordained, I ordain thee,' " &C.J " When the Convocation was opened, the King sent them a message .... desiring them to consider such things as by his order should be said before them. . . . But the Lower House of Convocation expressed a resolution not to enter into any debates with relation to alterations .- so that they would take no notice of the second part of the King's message : and it was not ivithout difficulty, carried to make a decent address to the King, thanking him for his promise of protection. But because, in the draught which the Bishops sent them, they acknowledged the protection, that the Protestant religion hi general and the Church of England in particular, had received from him, the Lower House thought that this imported their owning some com mon union ivith the foreign Protestants ; so they would not agree to it.'" .... •> For more detailed and very curious particulars of the con- 22 " But there was a veiy happy direction of the providence of God observed in this matter. The Jacobite clergy, who were then under suspension, were designing to make a schism in the Church, whensoever they should he turned out and their places should be fiUed up by others If tve had made alterations in the Rubric and other parts of the Common Prayer, they would have pretended that they still stuck to the ancient Church of England in opposition to those who were altering it and setting up new models. And by aU the judgments we could afterwards make, if we had carried a majority in the Convocation for altera tions, they would have done us more harm than good." (Burnet's Hist, of his own Time, vol. iv. p. 30, 34.) And a few years later an Act was brought in again into Parliament, a copy of which is printed fi'om the Burnet Papers in the Bodleian in Dr. CardweU's Hist, of Con ferences, &c., p. 455, in whicii is the following clause : " And be it fiu'tlier enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no Minister ordained only hy Presbyters since the year of our Lord 1660, shaU be admitted to any benefice or promotion unless he receive a second imposition of hands from some Bishop, to recommend him to the Grace of God for the work or exercise of his office, in the place or charge unto which he is called ; and the Bishop shall frame his words and testimonial accordingly, to the mutual satis faction of himself and the ordained, till a form on purpose, be by a Convocation and a law established." But this Act never passed. test hetween the Bishops of WiUiam III. and the Lower House of Convocation ahout the Protestant ReUgion and other Protestant Churches, the reader may consult " CardweU's Hist, of Confer ences, &c." p. 443 — 450. SECTION HI. That the same position was similarly rejected not many years afterwards by certain nonjuring Bishops in a correspondence with the Eastern Catholic Church, which anathematizes both the principle of Protestantism and its two leading sects by name. I. Not very many years after the defeat of the Compre hension Schemes which followed upon the Revolution, cer tain Scotch and English Bishops of the party of the non jurors, whose attitude, as we have seen from Burnet, had contributed so materially to the defeat ofall such schemes in 1689 and afterwards, took advantage of an opportunity which presented itself to open a correspondence with a view to the establishment of unity between themselves and the Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Church. The following extracts will shew what was the relation in which the Eastern Church stood both to Protestantism gene rally, and to the Sects of the Lutherans and Calvinists in particular, at the time of the commencement of the corre spondence in question. a. (From the circular letter prefixed to the Acts of the Synod of Bethlehem against the Calvinists, held under Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, A.D. 1673, and sent in 1723, by the Eastern Patriarchs, through the Most Holy Russian Synod, to the above-mentioned Enghsh and Scotch Bishops.) " For inasmuch as they (the Calvinists) separated them selves, or it may be were rent off from the Occidentals, 24 and then absolutely disowned and warred upon the whole Catholic Church, they are most evidently heretics and the very chiefest of all heretics. For not only did they bring in new and absurd dogmas (if indeed any of their fables can be caUed dogmas) thi-ough their Individuahsm, {i\avria) but they have nothing hke a Church among them, nor any community whatsoever vrith the Cathohc Church. * * * "They know perfectly weU both the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, and our Orthodox Faith : (for the sense of the Eastern Church is nothing else than the word of God rightly held and unfolded by the piety of the Holy Fathers, with the Traditions which have come from the mouths of the Apostles and have heen kept by the Fathers even unto oui- time :) but they turn a deaf ear and wiU not be corrected, because they cannot bring themselves to give up that self-wiUed obstinacy wliich is the peculiar charac teristic of heretics. " Fifty years after the time of the madness of Luther, Martin Krusius of Tubingen in Germany, with other sophists of the Lutheran innovators, (the sense atid spirit of Luther and Calvin is all one, however they may seem to differ in some particularities) sent the heads of their heresy to the Bishop who then presided at the helm of the Apostohcal Church of Constantinople, that they might discover whether they agreed in doctrine with the Oriental Chm'ch. But that illustrious Patriarch wrote to them, or rather against them, three Treatises or answers of great accuracy, in which he both refuted their heresy like an orthodox Christian and a good Theologian, and declared to them all the orthodox doctrine which had been held by the Eastern Chui'ch from the beginning. To whom they gave no heed, having aU quite bidden adieu to piety. The book has been printed at W^irtemburg in Germany, in Greek and Latin, in the year of Grace 1584." 25 The second of the eighteen Articles or Canons made in the same Synod, is as follows : — " We beheve that the Holy and Divine Scriptures have been given hy inspiration of God, and therefore we ought unreservedly and undoubtingly to beheve them, and yet not in any other sense than as the Cathohc Church has in terpreted them and handed them down : for all the whole rabble of heresies admit and receive the Holy Scriptures, but misinterpret them by the use of metaphorical and equivocal expressions, and by sophistries of man's wisdom, confounding together things which should be distinguished, and playing with words in matters that must not be trifled with. Else, if each man had heen allowed to have his own private interpretation, and change it perhaps every other day, the Cathohc Church could not, as now hy the grace of Christ, have remained a Church to this present day, hold ing one and the same judgment on the Faith, and ever beheving it immoveably in the same way, but would have been split into ten thousand fragments, and overrun hy heresies or Sects ; nor would it have been 'the Holy Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, vrithout spot or wrinkle,' but a congregation of eril doers, as that of the heretics in general has most evidently become, and more especially that of the Calvinists; (who are not ashamed first to borrow particles of truth from the Church, and then wickedly and dishonestly to reject her authority,) &c. &c. &c." And the tenth Canon as follows : — " We believe that what is called, or rather what really is The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, according as we have learned to beheve in it, comprehends generally all the faithful in Christ ; that is to say, aU who are stiU in this land of their pilgrimage, and have not yet de- 26 parted before us to their true country • but we by no means confound this Church which is sojoui-ning below with that which is in its true countrj- ; though it be true as certain of the heretics say, that the members of both these two are equally sheep of the Chief Shepherd, who is Christ om- God, and ai-e sanctified by the same Holy Spirit. * * * * Of which Cathohc Church, since aU men, without exception, must die, and cannot remain for ever any of them as Heads, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is Head, and Himself holds the ropes in the steerage of the Chui'ch, and steers through the ministry of the Holy Fathers. And to this end the Holy Ghost hath set in all the particular Churches, that is to say, in all ivhich are really and properly Churches, and consist of members which are reaUy and properly such, as Leaders and Shepherds, and in a word, not hy any figure of speech but truly and properly, as Rulers and Heads, the Bishops ; they looking, that is, to the Author and Finisher of our salvation, and referi-ing to Him the virtue of their ministration in respect of their heing Heads. " But whereas together with their other wicked errors, this also is held by the Calvinists, that forsooth a simple Priest and a Bishop are the same thing; and that it is possible to do without a Bishop, and have the Church governed by a number of Priests; and that not a Bishop only but a Priest also can ordain another Priest; and that a number of Priests together can ordain a Bishop ; &c. * * * " Therefore we declare that this hath ever been the doctrine of the Eastem Church; — that the Episcopal Dignity is so necessary in the Church, that without a Bishop there cannot exist any Church, nor any Cliris tian man, no not so much as in name. Por He as Suc cessor of the Apostles, having received the grace given to the Apostle himself of the Lord to bind and to loose 27 b}' imposition of hands and invocation of the Holy Ghost, hy continuous succession from one to another, is a living image of God upon earth, and by the fuUest communication of the rirtue of that Spirit who works in all ordinances, is the som-ce and fountain as it were of all those Mysteries of the Cathohc Church, through which we attain salvation. And we hold the necessity of a Bishop to be as great in the Church, as the breath of life is in a man, or as the sun in the system of creation. Whence also some have elegantly said in praise of the Episcopal dignity, that as God Himself is in the Heavenly Church of the Firstborn, and as the sun in the world, so is every Bishop in the Diocesan or particular Church, inasmuch as it is through him that the flock is lightened, and warmed, and made into a Temple of God. " But that the great Mystery and Dignity of the Episco pate has been continued by succession from one Bishop to another to om- time is clear. For the Lord promised to be with us even to the end of the. world ; and though He be indeed with us also by other modes of grace and divine benefits, yet does He in a more especial manner through the Episcopate, as the prime source of all holy ministra tions, make us His own, abide with us, and render Hiniself one with us and us with Him through the holy Mysteries, of which the Bishop is the chief minister and prime worker throughthe Spirit; and so He suffers us not to faU into heresy. And for this cause also Damascene in his fourth Epistle to the Africans, wrote that the whole Cathohc Church through out the world has been intrusted generaUy to the Bishops : and Clement first Bishop of the Romans, and Euodius at Antioch, and Mark at Alexandria, are acknowledged suc cessors of Peter ; and Stachys was set on the throne of Constantinople by St. Andrew in his own room ; and in this great and holy city of Jerusalem the Lord made James 2S Bishop, and after James there was another, and another again after him, and so on even to our timC^; and hence Tertulhan in his Letter to Papianus caUs aU the Bishops successors to the Apostles. Their succession and their Apostohcal rank and authority are attested in like manner by Eusebius PamphUi, and in a word by aU the Fathers, whose names it is unnecessary to enumerate; and the same is by the common custom of the whole Catholic Church from the very beginning confirmed. " But that the Episcopal dignity is distinct from and superior to simple Priesthood is plain. For the Priest is ordained by the Bishop, hut a Bishop is not ordained by a Priest but by two or three Bishops, according to the in junction of the Apostohcal Canon. And again the Priest is elected by the Bishop, but the Bishop is not elected by the Priests or Presbyters, nor is he elected by poli tical rulers, however exceUent they may he, but by the Synod assembling at the uppermost church of that tract of country in whicii the city lies which is to receive the Bishop to be Ordained, or at the least by the Synod of that Diocese in which the Bishop is wanted. And if ever the city itself should have the election, stiU it would not be simply so; for the election is thence referred to the Synod, and if it should appear to the Synod a good and proper election according to the Canons, then, and not otherwise, the party elected is promoted through the laying on of the hands of the Bishop, by the invocation of the Holy Spirit. But if it should not seem a proper election, then the Synod chooses whom it wUls, and puts him forward instead. And the Priest indeed keeps to himself alone the power and grace of the Priesthood which he has received, but the Bishop communicates it also to others ; and the first, ¦= See below, p. 90. 29 when lie has received the dignity of the Priesthood from the Bishop, only administers Holy Baptism, and the Unction of the Sick with Prayer, offers the Bloodless Sacrifice, and gives to the people the Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, anoints with the Holy Chi-ism after Baptism, Crowns betrothed couples of the Faithful to lawful Wed lock, prays for the sick, and for all men, that they may be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, hut most especiaUy for the forgiveness and remission of the sins of the Faithful both hring and departed ; and fiu-ther, if he he of good reputation for learning and piety, and receive authority from the Bishop, he instructs those Or thodox Christians who come to him, teaching them the road to the kingdom of Heaven, and is appointed to be a Preacher of the Holy Gospel ; but the Bishop, besides doing all these tilings, heing as was said before the source and fountain of the Divine Mysteries and Graces through the Power of the Holy Spirit, has the exclusive privilege of consecrating the Holy Chrism, (i. e. of being the original minister of Confirmation;) and it is reserved to him alone to Ordain to aU Orders and degrees in the Church ; and in the primary and highest sense he has the authority to bind and loose, and his judgment is ratified hy God, as the Lord hath said ; and he teaches the Holy Gospel, and contends for the Orthodox Faith; and the disobedient he separates from the Church as heathens and pubhcans, and the heretics he subdues under her by ex communications and anathemas ; and, lastly, he lays down his hfe for the sheep. From all which it is manifest that the Bishop is to he distinguished from the mere Priest; and that without a Bishop, not all the Priests in the whole world can either feed or govern any Church of God. " But it has been weU said by one ofthe Fathers, that it is not easy to find a heretic who shall be a man of understand- 30 ing; for these, having abandoned the Church, have been themselves abandoned by the Holy Spirit, and there has re mained with them neither understanding nor light, but only darkness and bhndness. For if this were not so with them, they would not riolently contend against the most erident truths, such as is this most truly great Sacrament of the Episcopate, which is taught by the Scriptures, is recorded and attested by all Ecclesiastical History, and all writings of holy men, and has ever heen continued and avowed by aU the whole Catholic Church." /3. (From the Serrice used in the Eastern Cathohc Church on the First Sunday in Lent, commonly called Orthodox Sunday.)" To those who refuse the Councils of the Holy Fathers, and their Traditions which he agreeable to the Dirine Revelation and are piously observed by the Orthodox Catholic Church, he Anathema thrice ! "