be members of the same Church as the Church of England of to-day, which we know to be a schismatical body, cut off from the unity of Christendom some four hundred years ago?  There has been no saint canonised according to the rite of the Church of England, but if there had been, we would not and could not reverence them, for they would be to us outside the Church—­aliens, heretics, and, from that point of view at all events, unworthy of imitation.  Let us point out yet another “straw” which clearly indicates the essential difference between the Church in England before the “Reformation” and the Church of England after it.  When the young King Henry VIII. first came to the throne he, like all his predecessors, both kings and queens, was a true Roman Catholic.  So much so, that when a doctrine of the Church was attacked he wrote a book in its defence; in fact, the Pope was so pleased with his zeal that he determined to reward him by conferring on him the title of “Defender of the Faith”.  But, in the name of common-sense!  Defender of what Faith?  Was it the Protestant faith?  Was it the faith professed by the present Church of England?  Is it likely, is it possible, that any Pope would confer such a title on any one who was not in union with the Holy See, and who rejected Catholic doctrine?  Such a thing is unthinkable.  Was the faith of Henry VIII. before the break with Rome the same as that of Edward VII. who on his coronation day declared the Mass to be false, Transubstantiation to be absurd, and Catholics to be idolaters?  If not, then what becomes of the continuity theory?  The fact is that between the Church in England before the sixteenth century and the Church of England to-day there is no real connection, no true resemblance, and those who endeavour to prove the contrary are but falsifying history and throwing dust into the eyes of simple people, and trying to prove what is absolutely and wholly untrue.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 11:  As early as 1170 Pope Alexander III. decreed that the consent of the Roman Church was necessary before public honour as a saint could be given to any person.  Is it conceivable that such consent would be given by any Pope in the case of one not united to Rome in the same faith?]

CHAPTER II.

THE OATH OF OBEDIENCE.

In order to realise the absolute absurdity of the continuity theory, and to see how thoroughly Roman Catholic England was right up to the “Reformation,” it is enough for us to turn back the hands of the great clock of time some few hundred years, and to visit England at any period during the long interval between the sixth and the sixteenth century.