LETTERS XII & XIII.

THE REFORMATION.-HENRY VIII.-EDWARD VI.

IN your twelfth letter you assert, (page 146, 147), that," the only real points in debate at the time "of the Reformation, were these ;-Are the doc"trines of the church of Rome supported by "Scripture and antiquity? Shall the Pope or "Monarch be supreme over the people?" The first of these points included the question of the Pope's spiritual supremacy. It was wrested from him, in many parts of Europe, by the Protestant reformers; but these, instead of establishing evangelical liberty, strove, equally by the sword and the pen, to substitute themselves and their creeds, in the chair of authority. Their attempts filled Europe both with war and debate.*

Proceeding in the order of investigation which I have suggested in the letter to which You now refer, You inquire, whether England has been benefitted by the Reformation, I. In Temporal happiness;-II. Spiritual wisdom;-III. Or Morals;IV. And, whether the revival of Letters was materially promoted by the Reformotion. On each of these topics You conclude for the affirmative.

See the article in the Edinburgh Review, No. LIII. Art 8, on the "Toleration of the first Reformers."

"Christianity," you say,

"not Romanism, ex

"tricated us from Paganism." You have not shown that the Creed of St. Augustine was not,— I have referred to a work, which abundantly shows, by the confessions of Protestant writers of the first eminence, that it was, the creed of the Council of Trent.

You ask, (page 148), "if your parochial clergy "will not bear comparison with the monks?"— The proper persons to whom your parochial clergy should be compared, are the parochial clergy of France. I beg leave to transcribe what I have said of these in another publication.*

"A French country curate was truly the father "of his flock. There was not in his parish a subject of joy or distress in which he did not feelingly participate.

"Le pauvre l'allait voir, et révenait heureux." VOLT. Henriade.

"Generally speaking, his income was small. "If it fell short of what the French law termed "the portion congrue, about eighteen pounds a

year of our money, but taking into calculation "the relative value of specie, and the relative "price of provisions, about sixty pounds a year "of English money, in its present worth, the state "made good the deficiency. It is evident, that "with such an income, the curé could spare "little. Whatever it was, he gave it cheerfully, "thriftily, and wisely; and the soothing word,

History of the Church of France, Ch. II. Sect. 3.

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"the compassionate look, the active exertion to serve, were never wanting. In the house of mourning the curate was always seen; the greatest comfort of the aged was to perceive "him enter their doors. The young never en"joyed their mirth or pastime so much, as when σε they saw him stand near them and smile. But "the curé never forgot that he was a minister of "God. The discharge of his functions, particu

larly of his sacred ministry at the altar, was at once the pride and the happiness of his life. "There was scarcely a curate who did not "thoroughly instruct the children of his parish " in their catechism, and his whole flock in their "duties; who did not every Sunday and holiday "officiate at the morning and evening service; "who did not regularly attend his poor parishioners

through their illness, and prepare them, in "their last moments, for their passage to eternity. "The last act of his life, was to commend his "flock to God, and to beg his blessing on them. "In every part of France, the peasant spoke "of him as his best friend; Notre bon curé,' แ was his universal appellation. This is not an "exaggerated picture of these venerable men. "Their merit was at once so transcendent, and

so universally recognized, as to defy calumny. "On every other rank of men, the philosophers "and witlings of France exhausted abuse and "ridicule; but they left untouched the worthy and

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edifying curé. Voltaire himself, in more pas

is

sages than one of his works, pays due homage "to their useful and unpretending virtue."

When You have read this passage, I wish You to say, if the comparison between your and our parochial clergy is unfavourable to the latter?

Against your description of the Pope, (page 148), I absolutely protest.

When you commented (p. 148) on my mention of "the interruption of the night by the psal" mody of the monks," You surely forget that it was an imitation of our Saviour; an imitation also of the son of Jesse, who so often and so feelingly mentions, in his Psalms, "his rising in "midnight, to confess to the Lord."

XII. & XIII. 1.

Has the Reformation produced an increase of Temporal Happiness in the Nation?

1. You next inquire, whether there has been an increase of temporal happiness in the nation, since the era of the reformers. I admit all that can be said of its great advances in agriculture and commerce, and the useful or ornamental arts: but, when I consider its eviscerating national debt, its pauperism, its poor laws, and the numbers exanimated by premature, excessive, consuming and exhausting labour, I greatly doubt its increase in happiness.

XII. & XIII. 2.

Has it produced an Increase of Spiritual Wisdom? 2. As to the national increase in spiritual wisdom, place to our account the superstition, which

You can justly impute to us, and to yours, the actual socinianism, deism, infidelity, and general indifference to religion; -then gravely say, whether You really claim any increase in true religion?

A late Bishop of London* informed us, that "in "several parts of his diocese, there were many hun"dreds of wretched, ignorant young creatures, of "both sexes, totally destitute of all education, to

tally unacquainted with the very first elements "of religion, and who perhaps never entered a "church." Mr. Colquhoun† says, "that in the "population of England alone, 1,170,000 chil"dren, it is much to be feared, grow up to an "adult state, without any education at all, "and also without any useful impressions of

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religion or morality. To these are to be added, many of those, who have had the advantage of some education, but in ill-regulated schools, in "which proper attention is not given to religious " and moral instruction. So that, in the present "state of things, it is not too much to say, that

every thirty years, (the period assigned for a new generation), at least four millions and a "half of adults must, in case a remedy is not

applied, mingle in the general population of the kingdom, without any fixed principles of recti“tude, and with very little knowledge either of "religion or morality."

• Bishop of London's Charge, 1790, p. 14.

+ Colquhoun's New and Appropriate System of Education, p. 72, 73.-And see the Rev. Hugh James Ross's "State of the Protestant religion in Germany."