h as Saxon Protestantism was of
Luther." But now? Oh! now, "nous avons change tout cela," and history
has received a totally different setting. A certain section of
Anglicans, in these modern times, are labouring hard to persuade
themselves and others that they can trace their Church back to the
time of St. Augustine. They will by no means allow that they started
into being only in the sixteenth century. In fact, it is quite
pathetic to watch the strenuous efforts they make, and the extravagant
means to which they have recourse, in order to lull themselves into
the peaceful enjoyment of so sweet and consoling a delusion.
A delusion which a candid study of past history must sooner or later
ruthlessly dispel, and which has not a shred of foundation in fact to
support it. But we promised to point out WHY, in spite of
its absolute absurdity, these good men, like the Bishop of London,
persist in repeating and restating with ever-increasing vehemence that
there has been no break in the continuity, and that the present Church
of England is one with the Church of St. Bede, of St. Dunstan, of St.
Anselm, of St. Thomas, and of other pre-Reformation heroes; though
they must surely know that there is not one amongst these glorious old
Catholic saints who would not a thousand times sooner have gone to the
stake and been burnt alive, than have accepted the Thirty-nine
Articles, or than have joined the present Bishop of London in any of
his religious services. Why do Anglicans make such heroic efforts to
connect their Church with the past? Why do they advance an impossible
theory? Why will they stubbornly affirm what history utterly denies?
Why do they assert, and with such emphasis, what no one but they
themselves have the hardihood to believe? Why? For precisely the same
reason that will induce a drowning man to grasp at a straw. In short,
because even if they did not realise it before, they are now
beginning to see that their very position depends upon their being
able to make out some sort of case for continuity. They realise that
to admit that the Church of England began in the sixteenth century is
simply to cut the ground from underneath their feet. Therefore, purely
in self-defence, they feel themselves constrained to cling to the
continuity theory. It may be absurd, it may be unhistorical, it may be
impossible and utterly repudiated by every impartial and honest man.
That cannot be helped. Impossible or not impossible; true o
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