Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
History
Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- History
the Church of England differ from those of the Church of Rome, so far
the Church of England conveys the truth through a broken series?
That the founders, lay and clerical, of the Church of England, corrected
all that required correction in the doctrines of the Church of Rome, and
nothing more, may be quite true. But we never can admit the circumstance
that the Church of England possesses the apostolical succession as
a proof that she is thus perfect. No stream can rise higher than its
fountain. The succession of ministers in the Church of England, derived
as it is through the Church of Rome, can never prove more for the Church
of England than it proves for the Church of Rome. But this is not
all. The Arian Churches which once predominated in the kingdoms of
the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Burgundians, the Vandals, and the
Lombards, were all episcopal Churches, and all had a fairer claim than
that of England to the apostolical succession, as being much nearer
to the apostolical times. In the East, the Greek Church, which is at
variance on points of faith with all the Western Churches, has an equal
claim to this succession. The Nestorian, the Eutychian, the Jacobite
Churches, all heretical, all condemned by councils, of which even
Protestant divines have generally spoken with respect, had an equal
claim to the apostolical succession. Now if, of teachers having
apostolical orders, a vast majority have taught much error, if a large
proportion have taught deadly heresy, if on the other hand, as Mr.
Gladstone himself admits, Churches not having apostolical orders, that
of Scotland for example, have been nearer to the standard of orthodoxy
than the majority of teachers who have had apostolical orders, how can
he possibly call upon us to submit our private judgment to the authority
of a Church on the ground that she has these orders?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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