I shall first consider the
character of the temporal rulers as affecting the reformation of the church of
England. That men of unsanctified characters have frequently been made
instrumental in performing works beneficial to the church, must be admitted by
Romanists themselves. The character of Constantine the Great was stained by
serious offences, yet he established Christianity in the Roman empire. Clovis,
the first Christian king of the Franks ; Phocas, who conferred on the Roman
patriarch the title of oecumenical bishop ; the empress Irene, who established
the worship of images ; many of the Roman pontiffs themselves; and even some of
those who were most zealous to extend their jurisdiction, were all guilty of
great and terrible crimes. The emperor Napoleon restored Christianity in
France, yet it will not be pretended that his character was one of much
sanctity.
There is no impossibility that
God should cause evil men to benefit the church, for in the occasional
employment of such instruments, He only glorifies His own supreme power and
wisdom, which can educe good from the very evils he permits; and it may be
designed to lead His people rather to contemplate the truth itself, than the
personal characters of its promoters, which if it were regarded as the
invariable test of truth, would even open the way for heresy, because it has
been remarked that the founders of heresies are usually men of great external
sanctity. Bossuet himself admits that God has made use of very evil princes to
accomplish great works*. The evil character then of Henry VIII., of Somerset,
or of any other temporal or spiritual promoters of reformation in the church,
affords (even if it were not exaggerated) no proof that the Reformation was in
itself wrong. The objection only applies in a case supposed by Bossuet: when
" God desires to reveal to men some truth, important, and unknown for many
ages, or entirely unheard of:" in such a case he deems it impossible that
God should have employed such agents as Henry VIII. or Cranmer. We will go
further than this. If such a truth as had been entirely unheard of before,
or condemned in all past ages by the catholic church, had then been
propounded by “an angel from heaven,” he would have been “anathema.” (William
Palmer, A Treatise on the Church of Christ: Designed Chiefly for the Use of Students
in Theology, 2 vols. [3d ed.; London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1842],
1:326-27)
