At the present time (18G8) the Church of England is agitated by proposals of change on many sides. Archdeacon Wilberforce, who went over to Rome some years ago, issued an "explanation," in which he inquires how far the popular principle of subscription to the English formularies is compatible with the rule of Church authority. The system he believes to be altogether bad, while it has not even the merit of be- ing able to settle the differences which exist among individual churchmen. He says : "The difficulty be- comes greater when it is considered that the clergy are divided into various parties, who are widely op- posed to one another in almost every particular. It may be allowable, perhaps, to employ the phraseology of a recent reviewer, who has distributed them into three classes, which he designates as High, Low, and Broad. The last may be expected to be comparative- ly inattentive to matters of doctrine, regarding tlie Church chiefly as a social institution, designed merely to raise the standard of morals and ameliorate the manners of men. But the High and Low agree in one
point, if in nothing else, that to contend for the truth is the first duty of Christians. They differ, however, respecting almost every point of doctrine. One be- lieves the Church to be the body of Christ, inhabited by his Spirit ; the other supposes it to be little more than a religious club. One believes in baptismal re- generation and in the real presence ; the other speaks of the sacraments as if they were only acted sermons. One affirms Christ to speak by the voice of his priests, and that deadly sin requires absolution ; the other af- firms that the priest's words are no more effective than those of his parish clerk. Yet both parties, as well as the Broad, who lie between them, subscribe to the same formularies, which they interpret avowedly in contradictory senses, and from which they deduce the most opposite results. If all this does not arise from the laxity of those who subscribe, but from the inge- nuity of those who devised our formularies, they must certainly have been the greatest masters of equivocal expression whom the world has known." Subscrip- tion to the English formularies, he says, was original- ly imposed, and is still rendered by High-churchmen, on the principle that the Church's judgment should guide her members ; but the Gorham case showed that the Church of England has transferred the decision respecting doctrines to the civil power, and that the most opposite statements respecting matters of faith ai'e taught under her sanction. See Gorham Case. There exists in England a "Liturgical Revision Soci- ety," from whose "Declaration of Principles and Ob- jects" we extract the following: "The members of this society are moved by such ' weighty and impor- tant considerations' as arise from ' the exigencies' of these present times, to seek farther ' changes and alter- ations in the Prayer-book ;' some of which, as the most necessary, they now proceed to specify : 1. The Rubric : the word priest to be changed. 2. The Ordination Service : words alnised to the purposes of sacerdotal assumption to be alteied. 3. The Visitation of the Sick: the absolution to be omitted or qualified. 4. The Baptismal Offices : words asserting the spiritual regeneration of each recipient to be altered. 5. The Catechism to be revised. G. The Burial Service: gen- eral language to be employed in expressing hope for the departed. 7. The Athanasian Creed : the damna- tory clauses to be omitted. 8. The Apocryphal Les- sons to be replaced l)y Scripture." The chief aim of this society is "to bring the Book of Common Prayer into closer conformity with the written word of God and the principles of the Reformation, by excluding all those expressions which have been assumed to coun- tenance Romanizing doctrine or practice."
At present (18G8) Romanizing tendencies are plainly on the increase in the Church of England, and there is apparent danger of a total separation of many min- isters and members of this Church from tlie common faith of the reformed churches organized in the 16th century. The High-Church party has several schools, one of which (the Old School), while gladly concurring in all efforts for widening the breach between "the Church" and the "sects," yet continues in earnest opposition to the errors of Rome. Others, looking more at what is common to the Church of Rome and the Church of England than at what separates them, hope that the Church of Rome, by means of an "Epis- copalian" movement, will gradually come over to the Anglican ground. This party builds great hopes es- pecially upon the movements in Italy of such men as cardinal Andrea and Passaglia. There is, finally, an extreme party, which makes every other considera- tion subordinate to the desire to establish the- union with Rome, and which has of late proceeded farther in this direction as a party than has ever been done before. It is this party which in 18G7 sent a letter to cardinal Patrizi asking for some kind of recognition from Rome. It also aims at re-establishing monastic orders, and is specially conspicuous by " Ritualistic"
ENGLAND, CHUKCH OF 206 ENGLAND, CHURCH OP
innovations in divine worship, endoavoring to conform tlie sorvifc altogether to that of the Konian and East- ern churches. Until recently this party was more noted for zeal and fervor than for intelligence and ec- clesiastical standing, hut of late they have gained an immense advantage by the oi)en declaration of Dr. Pu- sey ill their favor. In his Eirenicon (1866, l'2mo) he explains away the chief doctrinal differences between the Articles and the Catechism of Trent, though, at the same time, he treats severely the personal infallibility of the po]ie, and the increasing Mariolatry of the Ko- nian Clnircli. Dr. Pusey also advocates the confes- sional and monastic life. The latest development of this school is to be found in the series of volumes enti- tled The Church and the World (edited by the Rev. Orby Shiiiley).