Book Description

CHAPTER I 5 RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION CHAPTER II 18 THE RELIGIOUS CHANGES UNDER HENRY VIII. AND EDWARD VI. CHAPTER III 64 CATHOLIC REACTION IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN MARY (1553-1558) CHAPTER IV 72 THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH (1558-1603) CHAPTER V 93 CATHOLICISM IN ENGLAND FROM 1603 TILL 1750 CHAPTER VI 110 THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND CHAPTER VII 139 RELIGION IN IRELAND DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY CHAPTER VIII 151 THE CHURCH IN IRELAND DURING THE REIGNS OF HENRY VIII. AND EDWARD VI. (1509-1553) CHAPTER IX 185 THE CHURCH IN IRELAND DURING THE REIGNS OF MARY AND ELIZABETH (1553-1603) CHAPTER X 224 THE CHURCH IN IRELAND DURING THE REIGN OF THE STUARTS (1604-1689) CHAPTER XI 263 THE PENAL LAWS The fifteenth century may be regarded as a period of transition from the ideals of the Middle Ages to those of modern times. The world was fast becoming more secular in its tendencies, and, as a necessary result, theories and principles that had met till then with almost universal acceptance in literature, in art, in education, and in government, were challenged by many as untenable. Scholasticism, which had monopolised the attention of both schools and scholars since the days of St. Anselm and Abelard, was called upon to defend its claims against the advocates of classical culture; the theocratico-imperial conception of Christian society as expounded by the canonists and lawyers of an earlier period was forced into the background by the appearance of nationalism and individualism, which by this time had become factors to be reckoned with by the ecclesiastical and civil rulers; the Feudal System, which had received a mortal blow by the intermingling of the classes and the masses in the era of the Crusades, was threatened, from above, by the movement towards centralisation and absolutism, and from below, by the growing discontent of the peasantry and artisans, who had begun to realise, but as yet only in a vague way, their own strength. In every department the battle for supremacy was being waged between the old and the new, and the printing-press was at hand to enable the patrons of both to mould the thoughts and opinions of the Christian world. It was, therefore, an age of unrest and of great intellectual activity, and at all such times the claims of the Church as the guardian and expounder of Divine Revelation are sure to be questioned. Not that the Church has need to fear inquiry, or that the claims of faith and reason are incompatible, but because some daring spirits are always to be reckoned with, who, by mistaking hypotheses for facts, succeed in convincing themselves and their followers that those in authority are unprogressive, and as such, to be despised.