To 'maintain Church of England principles': an 1862 defence of Saint Bartholomew's Day 1662

From a sermon preached in Ballymena Parish Church, County Antrim, on 31st August 1862, responding to Nonconformist commemorations of the bicentenary of the so-called 'Black Bartholomew', the anniversary of the Act of Uniformity 1662. The preacher was the Incumbent, the Reverend Edward Maguire. 

Maguire noted that in his "dealings and intercourse with my Presbyterian and other dissenting friends in this and every other place, I have sincerely endeavoured to maintain peace, harmony, and good will towards all". However, "the causeless revival of the 'Black Bartholomew' controversy" had to be addressed in order to defend "my beloved Church from much unmerited obloquy and censure". 

In the sermon, Maguire set forth the reasonableness and moderation of the provisions of the Act of Uniformity:

In a Church which holds, and rightly holds, that Episcopal ordination is essential to constitute a minister of her sanctuary, it was not to be expected that men not so set apart for the ministry should be permitted to minister to her congregations, particularly when so many of the existing incumbents were so totally unqualified for the work of the ministry ... The Act of Uniformity then provided, as its first condition - not that these Puritan Incumbents should vacate their livings (however, in the first instance, unjustifiably obtained), but - that they should receive ordination by the laying on of the hands of the bishops with the laying on of the hands of the presbyters. This reasonable demand some unreasonably rejected, though the great majority of them complied.

The second "hard condition" imposed by the Act was, that every ordained minister of the Church of England should declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything in the Book of Common Prayer. This, I maintain, was a precautionary arrangement rendered imperatively necessary, because it was notorious that at that very time there were Incumbents of parishes who, instead of using the liturgy in their reading desks, were wont to abuse it in their pulpits. The great majority complied with this second condition, and retained their livings .

The third condition of the Act was, that ordained ministers of the Church of England should bind themselves to obedience in all things lawful to their Ordinary. Now, I see no hardships here, nor am I aware of any exemption given to the clergy from obedience to those who rule over us in the Lord. To us, as well as to you, is the precept applicable: "Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves."

The great majority of the Puritan incumbents took my view of the case, and accepted the condition.

The fourth requirement of the Act was, that all ministers who had theretofore pledged themselves to the "extirpation of prelacy" should revoke the pledge, or else cease to call themselves ministers of the Episcopal Church of England; in other words, that if they had, from any motive, taken the "Solemn League and Covenant," they should now abjure it, or never more be officers of a Church which they had pledged themselves to destroy.

The great majority complied with this requirement.

The fifth and last condition of the Act was, that all ministers of the Church of England should declare it to be unlawful and sinful to take up arms against the king under any circumstances whatsoever. Considering all the trouble that is taken by our Presbyterian friends to impress upon us their unbounded loyalty to the throne and persons of the First and Second Charles, it seems rather strange that they should take exception to this clause of the Act of Uniformity. While we hold our own views concerning the Puritan loyalty of 1640-60, we do not forget that when the Independents were taking the game out of the hands of the Presbyterians, the whole body of Presbyterian ministers of London asserted a principle, extremely like this fifth clause of the Act of Uniformity, viz., "disclaiming, detesting, and abhorring the practices of Jesuits, concerning the opposing of lawful magistrates by any private persons, and the murthering of kings by any, though under the most specious and colourable pretences" ...

This, then, brethren, is the "notorious," the "infamous" Act which is now raising the ghosts of the small minority who, too deeply compromised, or from pure and conscientious motives, refused to comply with it, and in consequence resigned - not their livings, but - the livings of men who had been some fifteen or twenty years before unlawfully dispossessed of the same ...

The Act of 1662 was merely a test whereby to insure to the Church of England that her clergy should, as honest men, hold and maintain Church of England principles.