Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-13
THE CHURCH AND HENRY VIII.


This can hardly be called burning
question" 1t is not likely that many peo-
pie in Pittsburg care much about the an
swer 1t matters little to most of US who
founded any institution. What we want to
know is what the institution is good for. Is
it worth whilef Is it efficientf Will it do
its work. and is that work worth doingS
That interests us. And nothing else has any
other than an antiquarian or literary in
terest for us.
They say that the devil built the Cathe-
| dral of Cologne. am inclined to doubt the
tradition. The devil has done great many
| things whose record is written in the pages
| of the histories. He has even had his part
| in the affairs OF the church, and still plays
diabolical pranks in ecclesiastical conven-
tions But the devil never lifted up those
| two vast towers into the clouds of Cologne.
am sure of it. And the devil never painted
those walls of pictured glass which trans.
| late the sunshine into pages Of the gospels.
| That is not the DEVILS way.
But suppose he did, what of it? Suppose
that Master Satan in some rare spasm Of
righteousness, or in some absent-minded
mood, or by some unusual blunder, did draw
the plan of the Cathedral of Cologne-who
cares? We have the Cathedral. 1t makes
no difference who was tine architect
Excellence the Test Nowadays.
| 10 pdoI ioi hioss Va uo "aSh eiio
old is venerated by reason of its age.
Our test is excellence. The Church of Eng
| land must stand or fall by its own merits.
| 1t may be 800 or 1900 years of age; it may
have been set going by Henry Tudor or by
Simon Peter. What does it matter? If it
teaches a true doctrine. If it does good
| work, if it fills place in the community, is
not that enough7
Evidently, however, there are some peo-
pie who are still worried about the question
of origin. Not only was the editor asked the
question, but the proposing Of 1t gave rise to
debate. Some said this, and some that. The
readers of the paper, upon more than one
occasion, were invited to act as jury in this
old dispute. Unfortunately, do not know
how the matter was decided, nor If it was
decided at all. Perhaps it is still in process
of discussion. If so, this will be q contribu-
tion from without. 1t will be the suggestion
which the by-stander might make to the
chess-players.
1t Is plain to everybody that Henry VIII.
and the quarrel that he had with the Pope
coincided with notable change in ecclesi-
astical affairs in England. Coincidence may
mean cause, but not of necessity. There
were no obstrncting reaches of sand, they
said, on Goodwin beach until the erection of
Tenterden steeple. 1t is notnecessary, how
ever, to believe that the steeple caused the
sand. The Reformation and Henry reigned
together. That need not imply that Henry
caused the Reformation.
No Homage to Rome Since Henry WILL
NEVERTHELESS, Henry VIII did take
the Pope's place in England, and since that
day the Church Of England has paid no
homage to the Holy Father. Before Henry
the Church was Papal after Henry it was,
and has remained, Protestant. The debt of
60 ofol1x fha
tion as to the founding OF a new Church in
his time, depends upon the further question,
What is it which constitutes the essential
being of the historic ecclesiastical society?
Does the continuance OF the ancient society
depend upon the Pope, SO that sep
aration from the Pope is separation
from the Church, or does it depend upon the
Bishops? II the Pope is essential to the
Church, then the Church of England began
in the reign of Henry. If the bishops with.
out the Pope are sufficient to carry on the
Church, then the Church OF England, which
existed before that fight, simply cast off an
authority which had no necessary place in
the Church, and lived through the troubles
of the Reformation and into this day,
changed for the better.
Roman Catholics and Presbyterians. and
everybody else who holds that Henry VIII
founded the Church of England, must be-
leV6 IlldG LILO TOpo Is 81 uCCcSsdIy W tHo
being of the historic and apostolic society
that to refuse allegiance to the Pope is to
separate from the Church. All the Protes-
tant denominations, except the Episcopal |
Church, are quite willing to confess that |
they began two or three hundred years ago |
as new societies by departing out Of the
ancient fold. The Episcopalians say, We |
have never departed out Of the ancient fold. |
for we have kept allegiance to the bishops, !
Al-I a.. ~fA AI.
historic church. This position rests upon |
the assertion that there was once . day in |
Christian history when there was no Pope |
The Church existed before the Pope and |
may survive him. |
Peter the Church's Founder.
In the first centuries there were many |
Bishops, but no Pope,
That sentence about the "rock" was un-
derstood by many of the early Christian |
teachers to refer to the confession which |
Peter had just made, rather than to Peter |
himself But even supposing it to have had |
personal reference, Peter was the rock on |
which the Church was founded only as a |
missionary to-day in new country, preach |
ing the gospel for the first time, is similarly |
the rock on which the Church is founded |
there. That fact gives the Missionary no |
mortgage on the future.
AS for that other utterance about the |
'keys" the keys of the kingdom of Heaven
that is the Church-were given to St. |
Peter, and Peter used the keys, one Of them |
on the Day of Pentecost when he opened |
the doors 10 the Jews, and the other that
day in the house of Cornelius when he
opened the door to the Gentlles. The doors
of the kingdom of Heaven have stayed |
open ever since. Keys are of no more use
after the door is permanently open. The
successors of st. Peter have no more monop-
oily of those old keys than the heirs of Co.
lumbus, as one says. have monopoly of
discovering America. The Church, accord
inglv, began without any Pope. 1t lived and
prospered for several hundreds of years
without any Pope.
The Church's Trials and Triumphs.
PRESENTLY, however, for the better
governing of the Church, the Bishops gath
cred themselves into assemblies for con.
sulration, whose President was called
patriarch OF Pope. Gradually, the Office
came to be permanent one, and to belong
by custom to the Bishops of five great cities,
Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome and
Constantinople. Thus there were five
Popes. Then came the time when the
Mohammedans, advancing from the East,
broke down the power of the Popes in all
the four patriarchates which lay in their
path. The Church in the East was laid in
ruins. There was only one strong Pope re.
manning, and he lived in Rome. Little by
little the power of the Bishop of Rome grew
greater Little by little. through his wealth, |
his position. his natural authority, his am
bition, he became master of his brother
Bishops. That was probably the best thing
that could have happened. That strong
centralized Government carried the Church