An Effort to Romanize England
By L. A. S.
Religious persecution of a very real character is being experienced by English nonconformists under the education law which was recently enacted by Parliament. The enactment of this law is unquestionably an important step in the papal scheme to turn England back to the Catholic Church. England is to be papalized through the teaching given to the rising generation. The new education law puts the primary schools very largely under the influence of Rome, and Rome is improving her opportunity to the utmost. The English established church, it is true, is not nominally papal; yet it is so Romanized in its practices and teaching, and so much in sympathy with Rome, that the difference between the two, so far as the schools are concerned, is merely nominal. Many nonconformists, it is said, would even prefer openly papal schools to those to which their children are now sent. Education of children is compulsory in England, and English nonconformists are obliged to send their children to the public or “board” schools, there to be put under Romanizing teaching, and are compelled to contribute for the maintenance of these schools. Their little children are being taught to regard them as heretics, and fathers and mothers are compelled to pay the ones who are doing it. It is a great triumph for Rome, and for Jesuit intrigue in the English church. We present some extracts on the subject from an article contributed to The Outlook by Rev. Silvester Horne, chairman of the London Congregational Union, who writes of the “Passive Resistance” movement which has sprung up among the nonconformists as an expression of their sentiment toward the new law. Mr. Horne says:— An organization known as the Passive Resistance League has sprung into existence, with an executive composed of well-known leaders of the English Free churches. Eminent counsel have given it as their opinion that this organized resistance to the act brings the members of the league within the law relating to conspiracy, and exposes them to criminal prosecution. It has made no difference. Branches of the league have been formed in all parts of the country; at the present time over two hundred are in existence, and the work of enrollment is going on quietly but rapidly. The situation is a strange one. A generation has passed since English nonconformity had to fight for its own in this fashion. The last use made of the weapon of “passive resistance” by Free Churchmen was when they allowed their goods to be spoiled rather than pay a rate to support the established Episcopal churches. In those days it used to be urged that the church rate was for the purpose of maintaining the church fabric, and that, as the parish churches belonged to all the parishioners, no injustice was done. Nevertheless, the stalwart nonconformists retorted that it was a rate in support of a denominational institution from which they conscientiously dissented. Some of them were sent to prison; thousands had their goods distrained upon. The battle lasted for many years, and ended in the complete victory of the nonconformists. American readers should understand that in eight thousand parishes in England and Wales there is only one public elementary school available in each parish, and that that school is under Church of England auspices, and that all children in the parish are by law compelled to attend it. The nonconformist therefore asserts that the new education rate is worse than the old church rate. The old church rate went to keep up the parish church, but at least the nonconformist was not compelled to attend the parish church. The new education rate goes to support a sectarian school, and nonconformist children are compelled to attend this school. To understand the intensity of the Free Church opposition to this new system, something must be known of the social and religious conditions which prevail to-day in many parts of England. The power of the established church in thousands of parishes is almost absolute. The squire of the parish, who probably owns most of the land, expects his tenant to be loyal to the Church of England; and multitudes of laborers and small shopkeepers are given to understand that their very livelihood depends on their conformity to the will of the squire and the parson. The latter is very usually, nowadays, what is known as High Church. The old priestly notion of the ministry has been revived with great success. He repudiates the name Protestant. He regards the nonconformist as a schismatic and a heretic, and the children of nonconformists as proper subjects for his priestly influence. Even the Pilot, which is an Anglican weekly paper of conspicuous moderation and great influence due to its statesman-like opinions, declares that if the Church of England is to be re-Protestantized, ten thousand clergymen must be turned out. These men are interested in the movement for reunion with Rome, and their teaching is hardly distinguishable from that of Rome. The schools which these men manage are the most valuable instrumentality they possess for proselytizing young England. Backed up, therefore, by the social influence of the squirearchy, they are able to make the position of the independent nonconformist almost intolerable. He may be strong enough to take his own line so far as worshiping at a nonconformist chapel is concerned, but when he sees his own children’s minds set against him and the faith he holds most dear, he is driven to the verge of rebellion. So that when now he is required not only to expose his children to this peril, but to pay his rate that they may be seduced from their principles, he is astonishing the government by asserting flatly that he will not pay, but will suffer loss of goods or even imprisonment. The grievance is further greatly aggravated by the fact that in these church schools which are now to be entirely supported by public funds no nonconformist can be a head teacher. To the power of the clergy is to be added the sectarian influence of the principal teacher. Thus a further difficulty is placed in the way of the nonconformist who desires to be loyal to the law of the land and at the same time to his own principles. We never expected to see, in any period of reaction, the reimposition of religious tests in any branch of the civil service. The payment of a rate that our children may be proselytized at the expense of their parents, and schools supported from the principal teacherships in which all people holding our convictions are expressly excluded, is to thousands of nonconformists a moral impossibility. No section of the community has been more law-abiding than Free Churchmen. But it has come to this, that they can see no hope for England or for Protestantism in England save in the policy of passive resistance to the new education act.