Breaking with the Past; Or, Catholic Principles Abandoned at the ReformationGasquet, Francis Aidan
Religion
Breaking with the Past; Or, Catholic Principles Abandoned at the Reformation
Gasquet, Francis Aidan
Catholic Church -- Doctrines -- Catholic authors
innovating prelates to certain questions upon the nature of the Mass
leave no doubt as to the lengths they were prepared to go ha the
direction of Lutheran Eucharistic doctrine. The archbishop declared that
"_oblation and sacrifice_" were terms improperly used about the Mass,
and that it was only a "memory and representation of the sacrifice of
the Cross." In other words, Cranmer and the four other English bishops
who agreed with him, rejected the Sacrifice of the Mass as it had
hitherto been received in England as in every other part of the Catholic
world.
To carry out the new order of Communion a form, founded upon the
celebrated work of Herman the Archbishop of Cologne, which had just
appeared in an English translation, was issued and ordered to be
inserted in the Latin Mass. The process of spoliation of the Church
begun in the reign of Henry VIII. was continued. A bill, strongly
opposed by churchmen, was passed in the House of Lords, giving to the
Crown all colleges, free chapels and chantries as well as the property
of all guilds and fraternities. By this measure the gravest injustice
was done to the members of the guilds, which were the charitable
associations, insurance societies, burial and sick clubs of Catholic
England. The funds thus confiscated for the most part represented the
savings of the poor. Moreover, religion suffered the gravest injury by
the confiscation of the chantry funds and the revenues for anniversary
prayers for the dead. These were in many cases at least intended to
supply the services of additional curates for the work of larger
parishes and for annual gifts to the poor.
In the second year of the King's reign Cranmer intimated that the
Council had ordered the discontinuance of the old Catholic practices of
blessed candles, blessed ashes and blessed palms, as well as the Good
Friday ceremony of honouring the crucifix, known as "creeping to the
cross."
All these changes were, however, only indications of the more serious
attack on the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, which was being
engineered by the now almost openly avowed English Reforming party,
headed by Cranmer. On December 14, 1548, a draft of a new Prayer Book in
English to supersede the ancient Missal and Breviary was introduced into
the House of Lords and there followed a long debate upon the doctrine of
the Blessed Sacrament, contained in the service, which was intended to
take the place of the ancient Mass. This part of the new Book of Common
Prayer has a special interest and significance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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