THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.
A LECTURE GIVEN AT THE CHURCH HOUSE ON 29TH APRIL, 1896.[1]
If I were to attempt to deal in any detail with the large subject which I have proposed to treat, it would be impossible, in the short space of an hour's lecture, to say anything that could be of use. Probably it will be best for me at once to make clear what I intend to talk about. I am not going into such points as the question of Barlow's consecration or the Nag's Head fable. My interest in history lies rather in the broad lines of human progress, and the question which I wish to consider is whether what happened in England with regard to ecclesiastical matters in the sixteenth century was progress or not. I want to consider exactly what did happen then to the Church of England, what were the varying forms which it assumed, and above all what were its relations to the Romanists and the Nonconformists.
Let me first of all explain what took place at the Reformation. A great external change came over England in the sixteenth century. That change really
- ↑ This lecture was delivered at the request of the Parochial Church Committees in the rural deaneries of Westminster.
