The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-01
LECTURE ON CRANMER
BISHOP SEYMOUR, OF SPRING.
DIENCE IN CHRIST CHURCH
THE ENGLISH REFORMATION
EpiscOpalian Dis
cusses the Religious Conditions
of the World Before and After
the Birth of Christ, and Down to
the Present Time-COncIudes
With Reference to Pope Leo.


the Present Time-ConcIudes
With Reference to Pope Leo.
Bishop George F. Seymour. of Spring
field, ILL.,, last evening lectured at
Christ, Episcopal, church, on Cranmer
and the English Reformation, before
large audience. The lecture was one
of the series given under the auspices
of the Church club, of this city, and
nearly all of the Episcopal clergymen
were present. The lecturer was intro
duced by Bishop Gilbert. He said in
part:
During the period Of persecution from
Pentecost to the second decade of the fourth
century how many prayers must have ascend
ed from aching hearts that God would change
the face Of the world and make it smile upon
the followers of Christ. 1t seemed impossible
that such change would ever come. Tertul-
liam said so about the year 200 but 1t did come
a little more than century later. The en-
peror of Rome declared himself in favor OF
Christ, and he brought the state to patronize
but the state became the nursing mother of
the church and heaped favors upon her. The
public treasury often endowed the church.
Political influence was on her side. EceSias-
tics filled civil offices and were the friends of
kings The secular and the sacred powers
kissed each other but the sacred lost more
tians who survived the prosecutions when
they were outlaws and saw the cross uplifted
above the capitol. and carried as it's banner
at the head OF the army must have felt that
the millennium had arrived. or was near
CHURCH FAILED.
But the state secularized the church while
the church failed in equal measure to spir-
itualize the state. The same is true today;
it seems almost forlorn hope that religion
should purge politics. and inspire our de-
partments OF administration with the spirit
Of justice and honesty and devotion to the
public service. 1t was vastly worse for the
church in the middle ages. The state had
advantages then over the church. which are
vanished now, and allies to help her, who are
gone.
The papal power was welcomed. as the old
civilization disappeared before the advance
OF the rude barbarians Of the north, as the
savior of mankind. The traditions Of the
ancient and universal empire of Rome passed
as bequest from the last emperor to the
were in conception august and grand when
considered apart, but when united in one
personality they rose to the highest limit of
sublimity. Think of one scepter ruling the
world in the sphere OF civil affairs In theory
this seems most satisfactory, but when the
reality was reached under the twelve Caesars
it was for the most part horrible.
The needed correction was supplied 1t was
hoped when the spiritual monarchy was in
troduced as the supreme government under
Christ, vested in the bishop Of Rome. He
bore two swords which were placed in his
hands by God He ruled in both the church
and state. and kings and princes
truly his deputies as archbishops and bishops.
He. the pope the highest eclesiastic in The
world. must be it would seem a sanity, holy
man, and hence would supply the desired
restraint to keep the palace clean. the courts
of justice pure and the administration of at
fairs everywhere honest and righteous. What
a magnificent ideal, universal empire on
earth in church and state under one man.
who is nearest to the assembled Lord!
CHRIST CHANGED THE PLAN.
Would that men could have seen in our
/ Lords actions and words His reputation of
| this ideal Of absolute Capitalization in the
church even, not to speak Of the state, when
he organized his apostles into a corporation
| for the government of His church for all
time, and gave them charter of prerogatives
and limitations after He was risen and not
| long before His ascension. Christ showed by
His arrangement that He was the center
and His disciples around Him the innermost
I circle and the nearest approach to centraliza.
ton which He authorized earth. He placed
no one disciples above or below his follow
ers. He drew no apostle to himself and
| bade him take his place when He was gone,
but He spoke to them all alike and gave
| them commission, without distinction or diff
! ference, showing that so far as the divine
! command went, it stopped short of absolute
GENERALIZATION and limited the approach to
monarchy at the episcopate as a solidarity
| This is not saying that for purposes of prac,
teal administration there must not be metro
politans and archbishops, and patriarchs and
and purely ecclesiastical they come into ex-
istence as a matter of necessity in the con,
| duct of business, whether sacred secular
and have no more claim to be directly the
creation of God than has the primate of all
England, or our own presiding bishop, or
the president of the United States.
But in the middle ages we have the church
! and state in union, and the papal supremacy
| an alleged divine institution accepted as a
truth, confronting us as the parents Of most
of the corruptions and abuses and immoral
ity, which demanded and compelled reforma-
ton in the sixteenth century.
The earlier popes sought power, the later
| were eager for gain; at first the ambition to
be overload of all Christendom was the mas
ter spirit which animated Rome, and after,
wards, while the lust for power was not
quenched, the desire to amass wealth became
the supreme passion which ruled the papal
see.
CHURCH IN ENGLAND.
Bishop Seymour sketched the condi-
ton Of the church in England, which
was removed from the seat of power
and suffered from the evil practices
then in vogue Of ecclesiastics spending
! their time On the continent in debauch-
cry, while their work home was per-
formed by subordinates, whose prin-
cipal desire was to draw their pay and
tax the people. Continuing he said:
There rose upon the view three popes al
most in Immediate succession. diverse from
each other, but all as far removed as posi-
u ple lIom lno ulHo OF Cnr1St. These were
Alexander VI, who was pope when Henry
VIII. was child, and when America was
discovered, the monster of sensualism and
vice; Julius IL, who granted dispensation, in
spite OF Gods law, for Henry, Prince of
! Wales, to marry Katherine of Arragon, his
brother Arthurs widow and thus planted
the seed whose fruit was the severance of
England from the see of Rome, and Leo x.
! who was pope when Luther posted his theses
| IN the public square Of Wittenburg Leo was
| the elegant scholar, devoted to letters and
II not tainted with infdelity at least caring
little for the cause of religion The sensualist
the warrior and the unbeliever succeed each
shock the world with the frightful contrasts
thus presented between Christ and thalpopes
PERFECTION OF ORGANIZATION.
The Roman empire when Christ was born
exhibited the perfection of an organization
| From the Caesar to the humblest gate keen
er there was graduation in Office and inter
dependence in obligation and DUTY The
whole area CT the empire was mapped out
J into patrlarchates, dioceses provinces and
smaller divisions with their respective gov
ernors 1t was a magnificent framework NJ
military, civil and judicial arrangement Tho
churcn round a system in territorial adjust
ment, ans In nomenclature even existing
wnlthersoever she went. and ready at hand
for her 1t was a fcregone conc,uSinn
that the civil framework Of tbe enI Pon,o,,
empire, with Rome at the head, must become
the ecclesiastical framework of the church
wN.n Rome the city of the popes
me whole system of medieval and modern
Romanlsm rests upon causes which are dire A.
| ly human, partly accidental and part1v d.
signed lot the most part for the acquisition
OF power and wealth. The awful crime of
the system Is ita setting aoido 40 VI