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Page 23
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 11: As early as 1170 Pope Alexander III. decreed that the
consent of the Roman Church was necessary before public honour as a
saint could be given to any person. Is it conceivable that such
consent would be given by any Pope in the case of one not united to
Rome in the same faith?]
CHAPTER II.
THE OATH OF OBEDIENCE.
In order to realise the absolute absurdity of the continuity theory,
and to see how thoroughly Roman Catholic England was right up to the
"Reformation," it is enough for us to turn back the hands of the great
clock of time some few hundred years, and to visit England at any
period during the long interval between the sixth and the sixteenth
century.
One of the first facts that would strike any observant visitor to our
shores in those days, would be the attitude of the Church in England
towards the Holy See. Every Archbishop, every metropolitan from the
time of St. Augustine himself, A.D. 601, up to the sixteenth
century, not merely acknowledged the authority of the Pope, but
solemnly swore to show him reverence and obedience. Furthermore, even
when an Archbishop had been appointed and consecrated, he could not
exercise jurisdiction until he had received the sacred pallium, which
came from Rome, and was received as the symbol and token of the
authority conferred on him by the supreme Pastor. The pallium itself,
"taken from the body of Blessed Peter," is a band of lamb's wool, and
was worn by each Archbishop as the pledge of unity and of orthodoxy,
as well as the fetter of loving subjection to the Supreme Pastor of
the One Fold, the "apostolic yoke" of Catholic obedience.
In the early Saxon times, long before trains or steamers had been
invented, we find Primate after Primate of All England undertaking the
long and perilous journey over the sea, and then across the Continent
of Europe, and over the precipitous and dangerous passes of the Alps,
down through the sunny and vine-clad slopes of Italy, in order to
receive the pallium in person from the venerable successor of St.
Peter, in the great Basilica in Rome. But, whether they actually went
for it themselves in person, or whether special messengers were sent
with it from Rome to England, they always awaited its reception before
they considered themselves fully empowered to exercise their
metropolitan functions. By way of illustration, it may be interesting
to consider some special case, and we will then leave the reader to
judge whether we are dealing with an England that is _Catholic_ or an
England that is _Protestant_; with an England united to the Holy See
and to the rest of Catholic Europe, or an England independent of the
Holy See, isolated, and established by Law and Parliament, as it is
to-day--an England in possession of the truth, which is universal and
the same everywhere, or an England clinging to error, which is local,
national and circumscribed.
It does not much matter what name we select; any will answer our
purpose. Let us then take Simon Langham, as good and honest an English
name as ever there was. It is the year 1366, some two hundred years
before the Church in England cut itself off from the rest of
Christendom. The metropolitan See of Canterbury is vacant. The
widowed Diocese seeks, at the hands of the Pope, Urban V., a new
Archbishop. After mature inquiry and consideration the Pope selects
Simon Langham. And who is he? Who is this distinguished man, now
called to rule over that portion of the one Catholic Church
represented by England? If we study his history we shall find that he
in no way resembles the typical amiable Anglican Canon of the present
day, with a wife and children, living within the Cathedral close, but
that he is a simple, austere, Benedictine monk. He has been living for
some time past in the famous Abbey of Westminster. He was first a
simple monk, then he was chosen Prior, and finally Lord Abbot. Some
years later, _i.e._, in 1362, he was appointed to the vacant See of
Ely. By whom? Well, in those days the Church was not a mere department
of the State, so it was not by the Crown. No: nor by the Prime
Minister, as in the Anglican Church of to-day. But, as history
records, by a special Papal Bull. Thus, at the time we are now
considering, _viz._, 1366, he had been Bishop just four years. Now,
the Primatial throne of St. Augustine, as already stated, has become
vacant, and Simon Langham, the Bishop of Ely, is appointed Archbishop
of Canterbury, and Lord Primate of England.
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