Morning journal and courier., 1893-01-24
The Antiquity of the Episcopal
 

The Antiquity of the Episcopal
 Church.
 One of our esteemed New Haven ladies. interested in church history, requests the publication of the following interesting article:
 It is sometimes confidently asserted by persons little versed in ecclesiastical his- tory that the Episcopal church was insti- tuted and founded in England in the six teenth century by King Henry VIII, or by certain reformers during his reign. But nothing can be more absurd and untrue. The merest tyro in ecclesiastical history ought to know better, since it is a we'll es- tablished fact that the Church of Christ was planted in the island of Great Britain grounds for believing. by St. Paul himself. When Gregory l., bishop of Rome, at the close of the sixth century, sent Augustine with his forty monks to convert the Sax ons, they found iu Britain the ancient British church governed by canonical and lawful bishops already in existence. That these bishops owed no subjec- ton to the bishop of Rome Is evident from the history of those times. We are told that in the year sos Augustine held g con- ference with the British clergy; and &C., cording to the historian Bede, there were present at that conference "seven British Eco. Hist. H.. c. D. 'In order to induce them to acknowledge his authority, Au gustine promised them, If they would keep Easter on the same day as the Romish Church, would baptizs according to the rites and ceremonies of that Church and would preach the gospel to the Saxons, they would be allowed to enjoy all their other customs; to which the British bishops replied, We will neither do these things nor submit to you as archbishop over us. '" Among the speakers at this conference was Dinoth, abbot of the monastery of Bangor. He said to Augustine:
 every one of us, are obedient and subject to the Church of God, to the pope Of Rome, and to every pious Chris ian, to the loving of every one in his station with perfect charity, and to the helping of every one of them by word and deed to bee. mo the sons of God. And know not Of H ea pope e or which may b. elaimad or demanded by the father of fathers And this obedience we every ether Christian coutinyaiy BasIdes we are under the oTernment of the bishop of Caer tS over us u to cause us to walk in the way of fife From these facts it is clearly evident that, before Augustine went to England, there was a church established there, up on Apostolic principles, having the same officers or ministers ss other churches, and with bishops, owning and acknowledging no subjection to the pope of Rome. But at length the biehop of Rpme usurped an authority and influence over the ancient church in Britain which he did not possess by right, and forced her to succumb to his sway, inst as strong man might over power and bind another who was weaker than himself. This unj just and tyranrous G.. I.-k in the sixteen century, when mems minds became enlightened through the wider cir culstion of the holy scriptures, Gran l mer and other Reformers discovered that certain gross corruptions which had been introduced into the Church of England by the Romish church were repugnant to the l teachings of Gods word. A few of these l abominations which the usurped authority l of the Rornish bishop had forced upon the Church of Enylend were the worship of the Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, the | sdoration of images and relics, the belief in transubstantiation, and in the efficacy of peuances, pilgrimages, and purchased l indulgencies. These corruptions, the Eng fish Tsformers determined, as they had 8 perfect right to do, to cast They did not purpose to overthrow the church and establish 8 Protestant sect in l it's place, but simply to reform and correct abuses in the existing church. When the reformers had cleared away the rubbish
 which the Church of Rome had accumu lated around the Church of England there
 was not new church formed; there was simply the old church which had existed from the beginning, with the corruptiont which for many hundreds of years had gathered around 1t. swept away. The Rev l O 1aornc1 of tbo To- fish church, in speaking on the subjsot | says:
 "The present Church of England is the ole l Catholic Church of Engl and, reformed in tht reigns of Henry, Edward and Elizabeth, of ce- l tain sUperstitlouS errors; 1t ia the same churcl l which came down from our British and SaxoI ancestors and, as such, 1t possesses it's origina l endowments which were nrver, as ignorant per | sons fooliShly suppose, taken from one churci ! and given to another The church remained tht same after it was reformed as it was before, jus l as man remains the same man after he hal
 washed his face as he was before; just as Naa
 man, the l-per, remained the same Naamal
 fore The English 3i Romanists as N left eft thu I
 Church of England, to which they originally be
 had reformed too mulch, had become too Prot
 estant; just as the Protestant dissenters lief
 us, because they thought we had not re
 will style ues too popisn. The sss one paTt! eas!
 left us because they wanted no reform
 the other because instead of a reformation the,
 the Church Of England carefully preserved thu
 niidle path T he hurch of Engl=nd, then, tha ! church to which VI belong, Is the old Catholic
 church which was originally planted in thi ! country. But the founders of the Church O.
 Erg!and-remember do not mean the Reform | CTS. for nothing but ignora~ce the most gros l will speak of them as onr founders; ignoranc.
 which comedies to the Papists sn argument o
 the very greatest importancs-the foun 5ers o l planters of tn. Church of England, both BritoEi | and Saxons, were bishops oroained by othel l bishops. precisely as is the case at the present 1 time; the catalogue has been carefully and prov l identially preserved from the beginning I trust enough has now been said to show | the untruthfulness of those assertioni | which are sometimes uttered to make meI
 believe that the Episcopal church was in
 stituted and founded at the time of tn,
 English reformation, and is, therefore
 only some three hundred years old!
 Death of Dr. Joseph J. Barry.
 Dr. Joseph J. Barry, whose critical ill
 ness at the insane asylum at Middle.owr
 was mentioned yesterday, died there yes
 terday morning of pneumonia, aged seven
 ty one. He had been ill about five days
 The deceased was one of the most general
 Iy known physicians of this oity ten yeari ago, and had large practice at one time
 He was stricken with paIesis and was sent | to the retreat.
 Dr. Barry graduated from Trinity col lege, Dublin, with high honors. He first practiced in Middletown, later in this city and then in San Francisco, where he was connected with hospital. Returning tc New Haven he built up a lucrative prac
 tice here until his health gave way. Pros
 psrity was too much for him, and through