'The essence of the Reformation': a late 19th century Old High account of the Protestantism of the Church of England

From the 1872 primary visitation charge of William Connor Magee, Bishop of Peterborough, a classic Old High account of the heart of the Reformation of the Church of England - the restoration of the rights and liberties of a national church:

As a Church National, moreover, our Church of England has her inherent and inalienable rights and powers, as distinguished from those of the Church Catholic of which she is a part. The visible Catholic Church is not a despotism, it is a Confederation of independent States, "a republic," as it has been called, "composed of many monarchies," in which each State, that is to say, each National Church, has, if we may so speak, its own distinct and independent State rights. What these rights are, as defined by our own Church, we shall presently have occasion to consider: enough if I observe at present that it was the assertion of these, far more than of any particular doctrines, which was of the essence of the Reformation. Doctrinally the Reformation was the correction of certain corruptions of faith and discipline. But ecclesiastically it was the assertion of the right of a Church National to make such reforms for herself; and it is in this assertion of her rights as a Church National that there lies the true and lawful Protestantism of the Church of England.

It is the vision of both the Church Catholic and national churches found in classic works by divines of the ecclesia Anglicana, particularly John Overall's Convocation Book (1606) and Richard Field's Of the Church (1606/10). What is more, it rightly articulates the fundamental principle of the Reformation of the Church - that National Churches had the the right and liberty to govern and reform themselves. Without the affirmation of this principle, the reformation of "faith and discipline" could not have occurred. In seeking to reclaim the term 'Protestant' for Anglicanism - lost for too many Anglicans over the 20th century - this is where we might begin, for it is in the affirmation of the rights and liberties of National Churches that, as Magee declares, "the true and lawful Protestantism of the Church of England" is found.

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