THE VICAR AND THE WIDOW: POPERY IN THE CHURCH.
Tim Sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England classes the First and Second Books of Maccabees among those which "the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners," though "it cloth not apply them to establish any doctrine." Probably supposing that what the Church considered so edifying in print, would not be damnable if cut in stone, a poor widow, Many W OOLFREY by name, living in the parish of Canis- brooke, Isle of Wight, placed the following inscription on her hus- band's tombstone- " Pray for the soul of Joseph Woolfrey." "It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead."-2 Mac. Chap. ail. But the Reverend JOHN BREEKS, Vicar of Carisbrooke, passing one day through the the churchyard, was horror-struck at the Papistry of Widow WOOLFREY. To pray for the soul of a dead man, was as wicked as eating fish upon Fridays ; and he resolved to hurl the thunders of the ecclesiastical law upon the delinquent. Forthwith he went to Dr. MALTBY, who is "Vicar-General of the Right Reverend Father in God, Charles Richard, by divine per- mission Bishop of Winchester, and official Principal of the Con- sistorial and Episcopal Court of Winchester, lawfully constituted." Dr. HE A ILTRY no doubt, stood aghast, when the awful profanation was disclosed to him ; and on the " voluntary promotion" of the Reverend JOHN BREEKS, granted letters to the said Joust to cite Mrs. WOOLFREY before Sir HERBERT JENNER of the Arches Court. To many of our readers the following passage from the citation will be a curiosity- .. Wed° therefore hereby authorize, empower, and strictly enjoin and com- mand you, jointly and severally, peremptorily to cite or cause to be cited the said Mary Woulfrey, widow, that she appear personally or by her proctor duly constituted, before us, our surrogate, or some other competent judge, in this be- half, in the common ball of Doctors' Commons, situate in the parish of St. Bene- dict, near Paul's Wharf, London, and place of judicature there, on the ninth day after she shall have been served herewith, if it be a general session, by day, or additional court-day of the said Arches Court of Canterbury, otherwise on the general session, by day, or additional court-day of the said court then next ensuing, at the hour of ten in the forenoon; and there to abide, if occasion require, during the sitting of the Court, then and there to answer to certain articles, heads, positions, or interrogatories, to be objected or administered to her by virtue of our office, touching her soul's health, and the lawful correction and reformation of her manners and excesses, and more especially for having unduly and unlawfully erected, or caused to be erected, a certain tombstone in the churchyard of the said parish of Carisbrooke, to the memory of the said Joseph Woolfrey, late of the said parish, deceased, and a certain inscription to be made thereon, contrary to the articles, canons, and constitutions, or to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England ; and further to do and re- ceive as unto law and justice shall appertain, under pain of the law and con- tempt thereof, at the promotion of the said Reverend John Breeks, clerk."
The excessive absurdity of this proceeding, and the hypocritical mixing up of her "soul's health" and the "reformation of her manners and excesses" with the spiteful bigotry of the "promot- ing" parson, are small matters when compared with the grievous expense and annoyance to which the widow will be put by the cormorants of the Ecclesiastical Courts. There is something in- expressibly odious and disgusting in the array of Bishops, Vicars- General, Official Principals, Judges, Registrars, and Proctors— all or them to be feed extravagantly—against the helpless widow. And this is done in the name of religion, and for the suppression of Popery : the machinery being the legacy of the worst days of Popish ascendancy, and the Court one of the most abominable nuisances which English Protestantism has perpetuated. At the present time, too, the proceedings are peculiarly revolt- Th reader hag perhape heard of the " new faith" promul- gated at Oxford, and of certain publicatiorie entitled "Tracts for the Times.' The " new faith" countenances the prominent doc- trines of the Roman Catholic creed. The more active 'Teachers and writers of this sellout are Dr. PersEY and the Reverend Mr. NEWMAN : the bitter gentleman, if we tnistake not, being editor of the British Critie. One of the most noted of their publiea- tions entitled " Fronde's Remains;' and a few extracts from aria wsrk will make poor Widow WooarRE.Y.s Papistrv appear in- offensive by the side of the Protestantism if the Oxford University divines. But no Vicar-General institutes proceedings against them : they are powerful and able men ; the victims of our Ecclesiastical laws are the helpless and unlearned.
" I Aimee like to know why you flinch from saying that the power of mak- ing the body and blood of Christ is vested in the suecessors of the Apostles? " (i. e. the C ergy.)—Frowles Rrmains. Vol. I. p. 3.26h W hat is this but Transubstantiation, denounced by the 28th Article of the Chinch of Eogland ?
" I must go about the country to look for the stray sheep of the true fold : there are many abont. I am sure; only that odious Protestantism sticks in people's gizzards."—Vol. I. p.
" You is ill be shocked at my avowal, that I am every day becoming a less and less loyal son of the Reformation. It appears to me plain, that in all mat- ters that si..em to us indifferent or even (limb fol. we should conform our proe. tires to those of the Church which has preserved its traditionary practices un- broken,"—(i. e. the Church of Rome.) Vol. I. p. 336.
" It has lately come into my head, that the present state of things in Eng- land makes an opening for reviving the monastic system. I think of putting the view forward under tbe tit!e of • Proket for Reviving Religion in Great Towns.'"—Vol 1. p. 404.
In other publications by the same parties, addresses to the Vir- gin are recommended, and the restoration of the practice of Con- fession.
But this is not all. From a correspondent of the chronicle, we learn that the Bishop of WisieuEsrER has only to step into his own Cathedral, or the Chapel of Winchester College, to find sani- lar inscriptions to tiro on JOSEPH WOOLFREY'S tomb. In the Cathedral he may find the following- " Here lies William de Basing, who was formerly Prior of this church, To who..e soul God be merciful !
And whosoever prays for the same shall obtain three
yeats and fifty days of indulgence."
In the window of the Chapel of Winchester College-
" Orate pro anima Wilhebni de Wykebam, fundatoris istius collegii." And other instances might be multiplied. But it will be said that these wete placed in our churches in Popish times. Well, then, there is the highest modern authority for praying for the souls of the dead. Li 1816, the Bishop of CHESTER preached a ser- mon on the death of the Princess CHARLOTTE, and used the foi- 1 wing words- " We commend, too, as fir as we may, and as heeotneth us, the said of her who is departed. We pray, we humbly pray, that she may be received into the mansions of the blessed !"
Whose doctrine are the humble and unlearned to follow, if not that preached by the Bishops of the Church on solemn occasions ?
How far the partial restoration of Catholivism might be useful to the State Church, is a question. The great mass of the people re- quire something more striking to the eye and the senses, or stimu- lating to the imagination, than the English Church supplies. After the overthrow of the Catholic Establishment, until the preaching of WEsaeo, the bulk of the labouring population were almost entirely destitute of religions instruction. They did not like the Church ; and the Nonconformist chirp men, with the habits of accomplished gentlemen, were unfit to go into the lanes and alleys, the coal-pits and the hevels, in search of souls to be saved. WESLEY and WH!TFIELDstartIol and terrified the multi- tude. A substitute for Popery was found ; and had ma the Methodists themselves degenerated into copies of the Established clergy, with their numereus and well-furnished meeting-houses, tlesir ample funds, and strict discipline, their progress, which of late years seems to have been slow, might have left little raw material for the Church or other sects to work upon. But the fact is undeniable, that the multitude are not charmed, as their fathers were, with modern Methodist 'Teaching. The se-t is split up into factions; and little or no encroachment is made on the religious wilderness. It is highly probable that a partial restora- tion of the Catholic ceremonial and pomp would attract millions to the Church. Mr. FROUDE avows his "hatred " of the "meagre- ness of Protestantism ;" and the Chinch of England ceremonial might be made far more attractive. We have heard that no small portion of the Reverend Mr. MORTIMER'S success in collecting eoagregations in London, is to be attributed to his attention to the musical part of the service. But whatever the effect might be, the design to restore Popery—all hut the Pope (for the5e must be no tribute to Rome, no foreign intruders into rich English sees)—is pursued systematically at the place supposed to be the head- quarters of Protestantism, Oxford University. The Oxford gentle- men are perhaps wise in their generation. Stick to the Bible and eschew tradition, and the defence of the Anglican Church as an apostolical establishment becomes difficult, if not impossible. The High Church party are pinched in this part of the argument with their Catholic opponents ; and, judging from the Oxford Tr Id-4 we should suppose them willing tu abandon the mere Pro- testaut ground.
With such glaring proof of the promulgation of Popery by men of erudition and preferment in the Church, the Ecclesiastical Courts and their abettors are content to let themselves loose upon a poor unletteted widow! The Vicar of Cariabr oke will next perhaps ferret out a witch in his parish, and have her examined by Sir HEKHERT JENNER respecting her 'soul's health" and the " reformation of her excesses." It is useless to excite him to a nobler field. He will not break a lance with Dr. PusEY or a Bishop, as long as there are old women to be found, in attacking whom he may exhibit his spiritual prowess and the fervour of his Pro- testant zeal.
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