The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-02
BREACH WITH VATICAN

reign.
 BREACH WITH VATICAN It is well known that the occasion of Englands breach with the vatican was the failure of Henry to get from the pope a decree of dissolution of his marriage of Catherine of Aragon. | say the occasion. not the cause For centuries a struggle had been going
 on between English kings and states
 men and the popes of Rome. In thls
 struggle the Romish hierarchy had
 been gradually losing ground and
 Britain had been slipping out of the
 grip of the papacy. But for this fact
 the downfall of the Romish church in
 England could not have been effected by its monarch's infatuation for a
 young lady-in- waiting on his queen.
 In the long negotiations with the vat
 ican, extending over years. one is i'm
 pressed with the fact that the religious
 element had very little to do with the matter. As matter of fact Pope Clement did not give to Bishop Cardl- ner, a decree authorizing Cardinal Wolsey to annul the marriage if he considered it wise to do so. But Vol sey, not wishing to bear the responsi- bi1ity of such a decision, returned the decree to the pope who later on issued direct decree on his own authority, but afterwards withdrew it when the fortunes of the Emperor Charles were in the ascendant. Charles was the nephew of Queen Catherine and would have wrecked vengeance on the pope had he dishonored his aunt by annull ing her marriage with the English king The vacillations of the vatican were wholly determined by political, not by religious considerations But ever since John Wycliffe had sent out his gospellers to preach over the land 150 years earlier and had translated the Scriptures into the English tongue, the People of England had been turn ing away from the papacy so that when Henry broke away from the pope he was largely sustained by the relig-
 ous sentiment of the people.
 AN ENGLISH POPE
 The Anglican church which was the creation of Henry VIII, was essentially Romanish in it's doctrine and discp- line especially in it's earliest phases, and by placing himself at it's head, Henry thus became for all practical purposes an English pope. By degrees many of the elements in the Romish ritual were eliminated under the re visions drawn up by Cramer, whose love for the sacred Scriptures was very sincere and strong. Henry himself was no friend to the reformation movement as it was moving forward in Germany Switzerland and Scotland It was far too democratic in it's char acter to be admired by such an auto crat Henry even wrote book on the Seven Sacraments in which he violent ly denounced Luther and his teach ings, he also persecuted those who differed from him after the fashion Of Tyndans works, but probably most of all his conversations with Anne Boleyn who had in1bibed the reformers 5 ideas when she was lady-in- waiting 10 Marguerite of Valois sister of Kin Francis I of France. had insensibly led Henry into sympathy with the new ideas Henry, though his heart was never truly touched with evangelical truth, was too intelligent a man not to appreciate the immense superiority of New Testament teaching over Rom ish tradition and superstition, gradu ally came over to the reformers' ideas without. however. acknowledging it.
 BOOK A COMMON PRAYER
 Thus it was that he accepted Gran
 mer's Anelican Book of Common Prayer which is very largely the same as the Prayer Book in use
 by the Episcopal churches in this coun- try today Every one. whatever his
  ficent liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer and the truly devout spirit that permeates it from the beginning to the end. in spite of some. things in it still that savor more of Rome than of the teachings of Christ and His inspired apostles.
 The growth in the religious opinions | of Henry also accounts for the fact 1 that in his terrible reign, in which | it has been estimated that 70000 peo | pie were put to death of account 0. l their religion, some in the earlier part l of his reign were put to death for l doing or believing what others in the l latter part of the same reign were pu' l to death for not doing or believing. | Dr. Seddon gave some interesting de- | tails about the dissolution of the re l ligious orders and paid tribute to the memory of the faithful martvrs wht suffered for their faith in Christ under | the Protestant Pope Henry VIII l Tn conclusion he pointed out the l misohievous effect of the union ol
 church and state. The folly and i'm. | pety of any human being claiming | to be the head of the church since Jesus Christ has never abdicated sane
 still lives and exercises the functions
 of that high and holy office.