TOPICS OF THE DAY.
NO POPERY.
THE Clergy seems to be losing its conservative character : it shows a growing disposition to moot questions which are better left in repose ; and it is now mooting the most hazardous of all questions—its paramount authority as independent of the Crown.
We are not about to enter into the doctrinal part of the con- troversy between the thirteen Bishops and the Premier respecting Dr. Hampden, his Bampton lectures and his bishopric : theology is not a subject for a secular newspaper, and we expressly decline to meddle with that part of the subject. We beg to treat the af- fair solely on its political grounds; and they are quite sufficient to occupy the attention. We believe that it would not be out of place now to raise the cry of " the Church in danger "; the in- discretion of Bishops being the cause of the danger. From their conduct it might be presumed that they do not understand the position which the Church occupies in the affections of the English people, nor the nature of State authority. The English people, speaking generally, have a strong and
abiding sense of religious faith ; they have an independent confi- dence in the right of private judgment ; but, not being much dis- posed to theoretical inquiry, they are for the most part content to consider the subjects on which that judgment would be exer- cised as settled, and to leave the conduct of spiritual matters to men regularly trained and appointed for that office. We are speak- ing of the great body of the people, by no means unmindful of large exceptions ; though even in those exceptions the same ten- dency to assert and yet to delegate authority will be observed. If the English people occasionally rouse themselves to struggle for a principle, they are content with establishing the principle ; leaving its practical development to special functionaries. Nor are they very nice in their exactions : the Cromwells had wan- dered very far from the views of Hampden and Elliot before Monk gave a gross tangible shape to the popular feeling; and James had gone far beyond the tolerated scapegrace his brother before William of Orange was invited. As long as the ap- pointed functionaries administer the application of any principle settled by the nation, with a fair degree of conformity to the spirit of the settlement, and with moderation, the Eng- lish are slow to interfere. On the whole, in its appointed function, the Ecclesiastical Establishment has responded well to that disposition of the English mind. On the whole, it has maintained the doctrine intrusted to its charge with fidelity to the original interpretation ; on the whole, such changes as have occurred have been faithful to the spirit of a contempora- neous progress in the opinions of tb-.1*,P n'hnle. so- cially, the Clergy has not ae--,sated to itself an authority superior to that of delegated P.-..ctions. It has satisfied the instinctive desire to testi!) cud embody religious faith ; it has borne its authoritr with mildness ; it has fulfilled its office with a dignity that4ratified the reverential feelings of the laity, and yet has preserved a plainness of exterior suited to the English mood, and has avoided the overweening pretensions which have made most ecclesiastical bodies either tyrants or victims of popular dislike. " The Church," including the laity, has not ceased to bear in mind the duties incidental to its claim of Apostolical succession ; but the ministers of religion have also not forgotten, that in being selected from the great body of "the Church," they are appointed by the Church to perform offices on the part of that Church. The "divine right" which they vindicate for "the Church" has not been arrogated for the clergy as distinct and apart from the Church. The divine authority of the clergy is one which they can only claim in common with the whole body of the Church ; their special corporate authority is expressly derived from the State. In the Establishment, therefore, the nation has seen a faithful servant, performing its exalted duty with independence and efficiency, but not a dangerous tyrant. These are the reasons why the Church Establishment has so far preserved the attach- ment of the people.
The English people are accustomed to see this high fidelity in their public servants generally—a fidelity which has been refined and exalted with our national progress. On the whole, with little more than a theoretical " responsibility," whatever question may be made of their capacity or intellectual boldness, our Ministers are unmatched for personal integrity, and for faithful deference to their master, the State ; so are the Judges ; so even is the Sovereign. The thirteen Bishops appear to be departing from the spirit of the national usage which has elevated the Establishment to its actual position. They have either been guilty of committing themselves to a formal demonstration of opinion which they are powerless to carry into effect, or they are acting in the spirit of the interpretation put upon their movement by their cory- phteus the Bishop of Exeter, and are seeking an independence of temporal authority which is to be something different from what is understood by Dissent. Having used " the Head of the Church" for so many generations to block out the authority of the Pope, or any similar power arrogated by an ecclesiastical authority inde- pendent of the State, the Prelates of the Church, or at least a portion of them, are now advancing views which imply a right to override the State, and to make its acts subject to the revision of the ecclesiastical body. Dr. Hampden, eleven years ago, was en aged in a controversy with other ecclesiastical persons on the terminology of English ecclesiastical doctrine, and those
who dissent from his metaphysical -views assume a right to put a veto on his appointment by the Crown. They seek to use the authority which they derived from the Crown to bar his admission into their order, and to annul the act of the Crown. They seek, therefore, not only independence of the State that appointed them, but superiority to it. Were that attempt carried forth to its legitimate conclusions, the consequence would be, either the setting up of a paramount ecclesiastical power in this country—a Popery—or a disruption of that Establishment which so far forgets its authoritative re- lation with the State. Either consequence would be regarded by the majority of the English people as a calamity.
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