The religious denominations in the United States: their history, doctrine, government and statisticsWith a preliminary sketch of Judaism, paganism and Mohammedanism . The Mayflower. (From a Model in Pilgrim Hall.) THEONGREGATIONALISTS. JH E course which Henry VIIL, pursued as anecclesiastical Reformer, was in harmony withhis character. So long as interest impelledhe assailed popery in its strong-holds. Thesupremacy of the pontiff was discarded,monastic institutions were abolished, the ex-orbitant wealth of the clergy was scatteredamong a rapacious and impoverished aristo-cracy, the word of God
The religious denominations in the United States: their history, doctrine, government and statisticsWith a preliminary sketch of Judaism, paganism and Mohammedanism . The Mayflower. (From a Model in Pilgrim Hall.) THEONGREGATIONALISTS. JH E course which Henry VIIL, pursued as anecclesiastical Reformer, was in harmony withhis character. So long as interest impelledhe assailed popery in its strong-holds. Thesupremacy of the pontiff was discarded,monastic institutions were abolished, the ex-orbitant wealth of the clergy was scatteredamong a rapacious and impoverished aristo-cracy, the word of God was translated intothe vernacular tongue, and many vestiges ofancient superstition were removed from theland. But the system which he establishedwas of the same nature as that which he dis-placed. The supremacy of the pope was supplanted by that of theking; and if infallibility was not claimed, the proceedings taken couldonly be justified on that principle. The right of private judgment wasas sternlv denied as in the worst days of popery, and the fires of perse- 322. CoNGREGATIONALISTS. 323 cution were enkindled by a bigotry as intolerant and brutal as the manof sin ever displayed. The fact is, and impartial history records it, thereformation of Henry was a struggle for power, and not for principle—the reckless daring of a mind which would have subverted all law, andextinguished all virtue, for the gratification of its selfish passions. Re-ligion was an engine of state policy which the monarch employed toheighten his power and confirm his despotism. The radical error of thereformers was their admission of the magistrates right to legislate forthe Church. By making the faith of a nation dependent on the will ofa king,they hazarded a thousand evils, amongst the least of which wasthe reaction which this principle involved on the accession of immediate effects of a vicious principle, may appear to be benefi-cial, but its ultimate tendencies are invariably pernicious. Ha
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