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LETTER V.--ON THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
England is properly the country of sectarists. Multae sunt
mansiones in domo patris mei (in my Father's house are many
mansions). An Englishman, as one to whom liberty is natural, may go
to heaven his own way.
Nevertheless, though every one is permitted to serve God in whatever
mode or fashion he thinks proper, yet their true religion, that in
which a man makes his fortune, is the sect of Episcopalians or
Churchmen, called the Church of England, or simply the Church, by
way of eminence. No person can possess an employment either in
England or Ireland unless he be ranked among the faithful, that is,
professes himself a member of the Church of England. This reason
(which carries mathematical evidence with it) has converted such
numbers of Dissenters of all persuasions, that not a twentieth part
of the nation is out of the pale of the Established Church. The
English clergy have retained a great number of the Romish
ceremonies, and especially that of receiving, with a most scrupulous
attention, their tithes. They also have the pious ambition to aim
at superiority.
Moreover, they inspire very religiously their flock with a holy zeal
against Dissenters of all denominations. This zeal was pretty
violent under the Tories in the four last years of Queen Anne; but
was productive of no greater mischief than the breaking the windows
of some meeting-houses and the demolishing of a few of them. For
religious rage ceased in England with the civil wars, and was no
more under Queen Anne than the hollow noise of a sea whose billows
still heaved, though so long after the storm when the Whigs and
Tories laid waste their native country, in the same manner as the
Guelphs and Ghibelins formerly did theirs. It was absolutely
necessary for both parties to call in religion on this occasion; the
Tories declared for Episcopacy, and the Whigs, as some imagined,
were for abolishing it; however, after these had got the upper hand,
they contented themselves with only abridging it.
At the time when the Earl of Oxford and the Lord Bolingbroke used to
drink healths to the Tories, the Church of England considered those
noblemen as the defenders of its holy privileges. The lower House
of Convocation (a kind of House of Commons) composed wholly of the
clergy, was in some credit at that time; at least the members of it
had the liberty to meet, to dispute on ecclesiastical matters, to
sentence impious books from time to time to the flames, that is,
books written against themselves. The Ministry which is now
composed of Whigs does not so much as allow those gentlemen to
assemble, so that they are at this time reduced (in the obscurity of
their respective parishes) to the melancholy occupation of praying
for the prosperity of the Government whose tranquillity they would
willingly disturb. With regard to the bishops, who are twenty-six
in all, they still have seats in the House of Lords in spite of the
Whigs, because the ancient abuse of considering them as barons
subsists to this day. There is a clause, however, in the oath which
the Government requires from these gentlemen, that puts their
Christian patience to a very great trial, viz., that they shall be
of the Church of England as by law established. There are few
bishops, deans, or other dignitaries, but imagine they are so jure
divino; it is consequently a great mortification to them to be
obliged to confess that they owe their dignity to a pitiful law
enacted by a set of profane laymen. A learned monk (Father
Courayer) wrote a book lately to prove the validity and succession
of English ordinations. This book was forbid in France, but do you
believe that the English Ministry were pleased with it? Far from
it. Those wicked Whigs don't care a straw whether the episcopal
succession among them hath been interrupted or not, or whether
Bishop Parker was consecrated (as it is pretended) in a tavern or a
church; for these Whigs are much better pleased that the Bishops
should derive their authority from the Parliament than from the
Apostles. The Lord Bolingbroke observed that this notion of divine
right would only make so many tyrants in lawn sleeves, but that the
laws made so many citizens.
With regard to the morals of the English clergy, they are more
regular than those of France, and for this reason. All the clergy
(a very few excepted) are educated in the Universities of Oxford or
Cambridge, far from the depravity and corruption which reign in the
capital. They are not called to dignities till very late, at a time
of life when men are sensible of no other passion but avarice, that
is, when their ambition craves a supply. Employments are here
bestowed both in the Church and the army, as a reward for long
services; and we never see youngsters made bishops or colonels
immediately upon their laying aside the academical gown; and besides
most of the clergy are married. The stiff and awkward air
contracted by them at the University, and the little familiarity the
men of this country have with the ladies, commonly oblige a bishop
to confine himself to, and rest contented with, his own. Clergymen
sometimes take a glass at the tavern, custom giving them a sanction
on this occasion; and if they fuddle themselves it is in a very
serious manner, and without giving the least scandal.
That fable-mixed kind of mortal (not to be defined), who is neither
of the clergy nor of the laity; in a word, the thing called Abbe in
France; is a species quite unknown in England. All the clergy here
are very much upon the reserve, and most of them pedants. When
these are told that in France young fellows famous for their
dissoluteness, and raised to the highest dignities of the Church by
female intrigues, address the fair publicly in an amorous way, amuse
themselves in writing tender love songs, entertain their friends
very splendidly every night at their own houses, and after the
banquet is ended withdraw to invoke the assistance of the Holy
Ghost, and call themselves boldly the successors of the Apostles,
they bless God for their being Protestants. But these are shameless
heretics, who deserve to be blown hence through the flames to old
Nick, as Rabelais says, and for this reason I do not trouble myself
about them.
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