N. B.--In accordance with the Pageant idea, no attempt at elaborate scenic effects has been made.

The audience is kindly requested to refrain from applauding, as all concerned in presenting the Pageant have undertaken this as an act of service, in the hope that the Kingdom of God may be benefited and extended by the visual representation of some of its historic facts, leading men and women to greater work for it.

COPYRIGHT 1916 BY
THE REV. GEORGE LONG
Warsaw, Illinois

[3] Executive Committee

Chairmen . . . THE REV. JAMES WISE, MR. GEORGE A. RANDOLPH
Secretary . . . MR. GEORGE C. MACKEY
Treasurer . . . MR. ROBERT BURKHAM
Pageant Master . . . THE REV. GEORGE LONG
Assistant Pageant Master . . . THE REV. H. W. MIZNER
Assistant Pageant Master . . . MR. OLIVER C. SMITH

And the following Chairmen of Committees

Book . . . MR. ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK
Cast . . . THE REV. HENRY W. MIZNER
Costume . . . MRS. ROBERT BURKHAM
Scenery . . . MR. GUY STUDY
Historical Research . . . MISS B. COUSLAND
Tickets . . . MR. B. S. PEARSON
Programme . . . MR. EDWARD MEAD
Publicity . . . MR. DUDLEY A. BRAGDON

[4] Synopsis of the Pageant
________

Group 1. The Church begins her work.
Tableau: The Day of Pentecost.
Episode: The Council of Jerusalem.
Tableau: St. Paul at Athens.

Group 2. The Alliance of Church and State.
Tableau: The Vision of Constantine.
Episode: The Council of Nicea.
Tableau: St. Ambrose and Theodosius.

Group 3. The Ancient British Church.
Tableau: The Martyrdom of St. Alban.
Episode: The Alleluia Battle.
Tableau: St. Columba at Iona.

Group 4. Conversion of the English.
Tableau: St. Gregory in the Slave Market at Rome.
Episode: St. Augustine and the British Bishops.
Tableau: St. Aidan and St. Oswald.

Group 5. Birth and Loss and Liberty.
Tableau: Martyrdom of Becket.
Episode: Signing of Magna Carta.
Tableau: Wycliffe and the Poor Preachers.

Group 6. Ecclesiastical Liberty Restored.
Tableau: Caxton's Printing Press.
Episode: England Repudiates Papal Supremacy.
Tableau: The Coronation of Edward VI.
Tableau: The Burning of Cranmer.

Group 7. The English Church Regains Her Autonomy.
Tableau: Consecration of Archbishop Parker.
Episode: Queen Elizabeth receiving news of her deposition by Rome.
Tableau: The Translators presenting the Bible to James I.

Group 8. Evangelization of America.
Tableau: Preaching at Drake's Bay, California.
Episode: Jamestown.
Tableau: S. P. G. Mission to North Carolina.

Group 9. The Church of the Ages in Modern America.
Tableau: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Tableau: Bishop Seabury's reception by his clergy.
Tableau: Bishop Tuttle's early work.

Finale. Terminus ad Quem.
"The one far off divine event
Toward which the whole Creation moves."
--Tennyson.

[5] Introduction
________

THE Pageant of the Church is designed to show, by Episodes and Tableaux, the fact of the historic continuity of our Church from the Day of Pentecost to the present year of grace.

It is the offering of the members of the various parishes in St. Louis to the General Convention, with the hope that this visualized presentation of the history of the Church may be the means of deepening the convictions of her members and of awakening the interest of those outside her fold.

GEORGE LONG.

 

[6] GROUP 1
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG
________

DAY OF PENTECOST

The Church began her earthly existence when the Eternal Son of God became incarnate and was born in Bethlehem. During His life on earth, Jesus Christ laid the visible foundations of her fabric, and after His ascension, sent down the Holy Spirit of Power on the Day of Pentecost to be her guide throughout the ages, "until His coming again."

COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM

All communities and organizations must be properly governed. This involves the reference of differing matters to recognized authority. Early in the history of the Church, doctrinal and ceremonial differences had to be adjusted to avoid the dual rivers of Jewish and Gentile influences. The Council of Jerusalem, a representative collegiate body, firmly decided the questions brought before it, and henceforth there flowed the great Catholic river, on which men could travel to "The haven where they would be."

ST. PAUL AT ATHENS

St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, was the first direct representative of the Christian Church to come in contact with heathen philosophy. His masterly arguments, logically put, won for Christianity a hearing and formed the basis of the subsequent development and crystallization of Christian doctrine.

GROUP 1
THE CHURCH BEGINS HER WORK
_________

TABLEAU
The Day of Pentecost.
Dramatis Personae:
The twelve Apostles.
The Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Holy Women.
Christian Brethren.
Presented by Calvary Parish, St. Louis.

EPISODE
The Council of Jerusalem.
Dramatis Personae:
The twelve Apostles.
St. Paul.
St. Barnabas.
St. Silas.
St. Titus.
Seven Deacons, Elders, Pharisees and Brethren.
Presented by St. John's Parish, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
St. Paul at Athens.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Paul.
Philosophers.
Students.
Presented by Holy Innocents Parish, St. Louis.

[8] Specially contributed by WINSTON CHURCHILL
for the
Pageant of the Church

AN idea, issuing from the obscure province of a despised people, incarnated in an humble peasant, typified in His life and death, gradually conquers the great empire of the Caesars. Such is the extraordinary history of the first three centuries of our era. During the earlier stage of this period we see the idea planted in Rome itself, and despite ridicule, contempt and occasional cruel efforts at suppression, making its way to far Hispania, to distant Britain, and by Roman roads through Hercynian forests to the strands of misty, northern seas. Before an hundred years have passed we find the troubled Pliny, proprietor of Bithynia, writing his famous letter to Trajan, inquiring what policy is to be pursued toward those obsessed with the Christian "superstition," who have so alarmingly increased in numbers that the temples are almost deserted. And Trajan replies that the Christians must be forced to praise the ancient gods. A refusal to worship these was treason to the State. Thus began the period of the persecutions, when men and women went joyfully to torture, to the cross and the beasts in the arena. No such proof of the power of belief has ever been given to the world. Those who yielded and sacrificed to Roman gods, who surrendered copies of the Scriptures to be destroyed, were expelled from Christian assemblies; those remaining true, yet escaping death, were called "confessors;" those who died for their faith, "martyrs." Thus perished Polycarp, the gentle Bishop of Smyrna, with this message on his lips: "Six and eighty years have I served Him and he has done me nothing but good; and how could I curse Him, my Lord and my Saviour?" It was Lucien who said of the Christians, "Their Master has persuaded them that they are brothers!" The last and worst of the persecutions occurred under Diocletian, though there were occasional respites in the reigns of Gordian and Philip of Arabia. This was the age of the development of the three orders of the ministry into their present significance; of the [[8/9] formation of the New Testament canon; of Justin Martyr, who records the extraordinary transforming power of Christianity in the individual; of Clement and Origen, whose daring speculations and creative genius were acknowledged by pagan and Christian alike. At last we see Christianity triumph in the person of an emperor, Constantine himself, who acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord and Master.

[10] GROUP 2
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG
_________

THE VISION OF CONSTANTINE

The spread of Christianity involved notice on the part of the empire. At first this took the form of persecution, but finally the new religion won complete recognition at the hands of the State;--this being effected under the Emperor Constantine. Whether or not Constantine actually saw the vision of the flaming cross cannot be absolutely determined, but Eusebius states that Constantine declared to him, under oath, that he saw a cross appear above the setting sun, with the words, "By this sign conquer."

THE COUNCIL OF NICEA

When Christianity and Heathen Philosophy struggled for the mastery, it is not singular that there should have arisen teaching which embodied some of the tenets of each. Such was the Arian heresy, which influenced the civilized world over a considerable area. The Christian Church met in council at Nicea, condemned Arius and promulgated an expanded creed, which ultimately became fashioned in the form known to-day as the Nicene Creed.

ST. AMBROSE AND THEODOSIUS

The Emperor Theodosius had caused the death of 7,000 citizens of Thessalonica, in revenge for their murder of the governor. St. Ambrose, as his bishop, wrote: "You are to pray, to repent; then, and not till then, may you approach the table of the Lord."

Theodosius, however, paid no attention to the letter, and tried to enter the Church at Milan. St. Ambrose met him at the entrance, laid hold of his robe and turned him away. "It is one of the supreme scenes of history. The Church confronted the State and rebuked the ruler of the world."
[Hodges.]

[11] GROUP 2
THE ALLIANCE OF CHURCH AND STATE
_________

TABLEAU
The Vision of Constantine.
Dramatis Personae:
The Emperor Constantine.
Roman Officers and Soldiers.
Presented by St. Mary's Parish, St. Louis.

EPISODE
The Council of Nicea.
Dramatis Personae:
The Emperor Constantine.
Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch.
Athanasius, a Deacon.
Arius, a Presbyter.
Bishops and personal friends of the Emperor.
Presented by St. Philip's Parish, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
St. Ambrose and Theodosius.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Ambrose.
The Emperor Theodosius.
Clergy, Roman Soldiers and Officers.
Presented by St. Timothy's Parish, St. Louis.

[12] Specially contributed by BASIL KING
for the
Pageant of the Church
_________

IF it were necessary, in a few words, to account for the rise of the papacy in the sixth century, one might ascribe it to the human need of a centralized authority to counteract the anarchy and misery of the then existing world. In the minds of men the Church had ceased to be the visible expression of the love of God, to become a human institution charged with the wielding of God's power. As a human institution it required a government. The only conception of government was the autocratic one. The traditional seat of autocratic government was Rome. In Rome the Bishop was the obvious possessor of such authority. This reasoning being allowed, it was easy to find precedent and quotation to support it.

To its acceptance the superstition general within the Church, and the ignorance of the nominal converts from paganism, were favorable elements. The teaching of the Christ being obscured by errors and grotesque practices, it was the more possible for the aggressive and the visible to make a powerful appeal. As, in the blind, human effort to make devotion easier, the Father had been supplanted by the Saviour, and the Saviour by the Saints, so now the Saints began to yield to a personage that could be located and seen. To a world subject to every form of barbaric outrage, and almost hopeless of deliverance, he who undertook, with any show of plausibility, to speak in the name of God, speedily became the object of a propitiating, horror-stricken veneration.

It was in such a world that Gregory the Great arose, with all the qualities to meet the needs, and work within the limitations, of his time. A Roman, noble, wealthy, zealous, charitable, ascetic, learned, just, he was not only the ideal of the piety of his age, but the highest type the epoch could produce of the politician, the administrator, and the diplomat. To the city of Rome, plague-smitten and defenceless, he came as a saviour, outwitting the Lombards who threatened her from north and south, feeding her poor, protecting her oppressed, reforming her abuses, placating the feeble Emperor of the East, and, for lack of anyone else, acting as sovereign as well as pontiff, [12/13] and thus laying the foundation of a future papal State. All claims to spiritual lordship, which the Bishops of Rome had hitherto put forth, found their noblest expression in this remarkable character, to whom God was identified with the Church, and the Church with an ambitious human polity.

And yet at no time did his pretensions go unchallenged. Throughout Christendom there were bodies termed heretical, whose most flagrant error was their insubmission. To Gregory's title the Bishop of Constantinople, the world's politically most important See, threw a direct denial. Most of the East followed him, and some of the Bishops of the West. The point to be observed is that never were Gregory's claims admitted by more than a portion of the Church--and that the portion he was able to assist and protect by temporal benefits.

Nevertheless, it was to this masterful man that the world owes some of its conspicuous blessings, and not least the introduction into Southern England of the Christianity which was to fuse with that still existing in the North and in Wales, and so to produce the English Church. No page in history more effectually shows the over-ruling hand of God than that which reveals the sixth century Roman, autocratic, austere, as among the authors of the freest spirit in modern Christianity.

[14] GROUP 3
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
________

MARTYRDOM OF ST. ALBAN

The Christian Faith filtered into Britain by means of the soldiers, camp followers and hucksters of the Roman army of occupation. Quite certain is the fact of the existence of the British Church prior to the coming of St. Augustine; three British bishops attended the Council of Arles just after Constantine's Edict, and when St. Germanus visited Verulam in A. D. 429, he found Christians worshipping at the shrine of St. Alban.

THE ALLELUIA BATTLE

St. Germanus and St. Lupus, famous Gallician Missionary Bishops, came to Britain to confute the Pelagians. Whilst there, the Picts and Saxons invaded the land. The British warriors went forth to meet their enemies, accompanied by St. Germanus. The Bishop finding on Easter Eve that the soldiers had not been baptized, administered to them that sacrament and led them (still wearing their white baptismal robes) to the field of battle. As the enemy advanced, the British shouted "Alleluia!" "Alleluia!" causing the heathen to flee in terror.

ST. COLUMBA AT IONA

In A. D. 563, St. Columba came from Ireland, and planted a Christian settlement in the island of Iona, on the west of Scotland. This became the great missionary college, from whence vast tracts of the continent of Europe were evangelized.

[15] GROUP 3
THE ANCIENT BRITISH CHURCH
________

TABLEAU
The Martyrdom of St. Alban.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Alban.
Roman Soldiers and British Christians.
Presented by St. Alban's Mission, St. Louis

EPISODE
The Alleluia Battle.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Germanus.
Heathen Witch.
British Warriors.
Picts and Saxons.
Presented by Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
St. Columba at Iona.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Columba.
Monks.
Celtic men, women and children.
Presented by St. Paul's Parish. St. Louis.

 

[16] Specially contributed by CLINTON ROGERS WOODRUFF
for the
Pageant of the Church
________

MEAGRE in numbers, but great in spirit and undertaking, might well be said of the Church at this period of her history in England. That Bishops and presbyters should have been able to withstand the savage opposition of their time, and fight the good fight and keep the faith, under such appalling circumstances, constitutes a heritage of which we may well be proud and seek to emulate.

That Bishops and presbyters were willing to leave the seat of light and learning, as Rome then was, to go to the uttermost parts of the then known world that the Good Word of our Blessed Lord might be taken to those believed to be in outer darkness, is another heritage worthy of reverence and extension.

Then, as now, nay, more then than now, the missionary spirit, the spirit of martyrdom and the faith of saints and heroes, were the characteristic marks of the Christian life.

St. Alban, "by birth, a Briton; by privilege, a Roman; by profession, a soldier," became by virtue of his Christian life and sacrifice, a saint.

The incident of the Alleluia Battle embodies the interest of France in the spiritual welfare of the sister isle in the visit of the two famous Bishops--Germanus of Auxerre and Lupus of Troyes; the loyalty and the faith of the Welsh; and the spirit of obedience to spiritual superiors.

St. Columba, by birth, an Irishman; by position, an abbot; by impulse and conviction, a missionary, came to Iona that he might convert the Picts to Christianity; dying on the day that St. Augustine began his work in the South of the Island.

St. Gregory and St. Augustine, obedient to the heavenly vision, and burdened with the desire for souls, began the missionary effort from Rome which came just in time to save the Ancient Church from extinction in Britain.

[17] In the work of St. Aidan, from Iona, and of King Oswald, of Northumbria, of sainted memory, we have the joinder of the missionary zeal of Ireland and Scotland, with that of Rome, for the Christianizing of England, and the firmer establishment of the English Church, in which then, as now, in the parent body and in the daughters, we find a blending of the holiest aspirations and noblest undertakings of men and women of many climes and races for the greater glory of God and the greater service of mankind.

[18] GROUP 4
CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
________

ST. GREGORY IN THE SLAVE MARKET

Long before he became Pope, St. Gregory planned the conversion of the barbarians. One day he saw in a marketplace in Rome some fair-haired lads, and on enquiring as to their birthplace, he was informed that it was "Angle-land." "Not Angle-land, but Angel-land," he said, and prayed that they might be converted to sing Alleluia to God.

In A. D. 697, he sent some forty missionaries to England, headed by St. Augustine.

ST. AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITISH BISHOPS

The British Church organized under national bishops had developed along its own line, wholly uninfluenced by Rome. Says Wakeman: "Conscious of its own vigour it would naturally resent a claim of foreign authority, which treated it as barbarous." The Episode depicts St. Augustine and the British Bishops in final conference. The questions raised were ceremonial rather than doctrinal. Injected into the debate however, was the question of submission to Rome, and this proved the stumbling block to agreement between the parties.

SS. AIDAN AND OSWALD

St. Aidan, "Sweet saint of Northern Britain," so lovable by nature, so lofty in character, found in Oswald, the King, a man like-minded with himself. Through both, the Divine Spirit of charity diffused itself abroad, and conquered the rude and sturdy Northmen to the Faith. A practical illustration of the King's good work was given one Easter Day, when a poor and hungry beggar appeared in the banquet hall, asking for food and alms; not only did the King give him his own food, but also the silver dish in which it was being served.

[19] GROUP 4
CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH
_________

TABLEAU
St. Gregory and the Slaves.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Gregory.
Slave Dealer.
Slaves.
Monks.
Roman soldiers and citizens.
Presented by Holy Cross Mission, St. Louis.

EPISODE
St. Augustine and the British Bishops.
Dramatis Personae:
St. Augustine.
The Abbot of Bangor.
British Bishops.
Monks.
British and Saxon men and women.
Presented by Holy Communion Parish, St. Louis

TABLEAU
St. Aidan and St. Oswald.
Dramatis Personae:
SS. Aidan and Oswald. Ladies.
A beggar.
Warriors and Servitors.
Presented by Church of the Redeemer, St. Louis.

[20] Specially contributed by GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER
for the
Pageant of the Church

TO bring men to the knowledge of Our Lord is the first and great responsibility of the Christian Church. And the second is like unto it: to insist that the power of this knowledge shall be used always for spiritual and not for worldly ends.

To Saint Aidan and Saint Oswald these were not merely theories to be professed. They were truths by which to order every detail of daily conduct. To King John, who followed them after a lapse of five centuries, Christianity seemed to have no relation to life, while the Church was, in his eyes, merely a world-power to which, after vain defiance, he sullenly yielded. Between these two extreme types stands Thomas a Becket, in whom the spirit of the saint and of the ecclesiastic struggle for the mastery. The lives of these four men are an epitome of the history of the Church.

After Saint Aidan and Saint Oswald had conquered heathenism through the power of the Christian life, the Church of England passed beyond the missionary stage of its development and became a National Church. Wilfred, Bishop of Ripon, preserved its relation to the Western Church as a whole. Great men, like Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, addressed themselves to the three-fold task of perfecting its organization, educating its clergy, and ministering to its people through the agency of parish and monastery. The Venerable Bede expressed what was best in its life. King Alfred, the founder of English national greatness, gained his inspiration at its altars. When ecclesiastical abuses grew apace, leaders like Saint Dunstan were able to reform them. But until the coming of the Normans the Church of England remained essentially the National Church of an Island Nation.

[21] Following the Norman Conquest came the long struggle in which Anselm and Langton successfully championed the rights of the Church against the State. For these rights Becket stood manfully against King Henry II. The pains of his martyrdom proved to be the birth-pangs of English Liberty.

[22] GROUP 5
BIRTH AND LOSS OF LIBERTY
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
_________

MARTYRDOM OF BECKET

Whatever may be thought of the aims and acts of Thomas a Becket, at least this must be conceded, namely, he fought for the liberty of the Church, even to the surrender of life. His death gained for the Church more than all the polemical struggle that preceded it.

SIGNING OF MAGNA CARTA

Very nearly had the liberties of the Church and realm departed from England. King John, the unscrupulous, had sold both to a foreign purchaser, and only the sturdy resistance of the Ecclesiastical and civil leaders gained for England her freedom from foreign thrall. The signing of the Great Charter brought liberty to the English-speaking race for all time.

WYCLIFFE AND HIS POOR PREACHERS

At the time when the purity of the Gospel story was sadly overclouded by pseudo-miracle lore, and liberty was lost or hampered, there arose in Europe teachers of religion whose aim was the return to primitive and Scriptural doctrine. It is due to Wycliffe and men of like vision that the Church emerged from medieval darkness. Had the Church from the first given them a hearing, much of the subsequent disruption of the religious world would have been avoided.

[23] GROUP 5
BIRTH AND LOSS OF LIBERTY
_________

TABLEAU
The Martyrdom of Becket.
Dramatis Personae:
Thomas a Becket.
A Monk.
Norman Knights.
Presented by Holy Trinity Parish, St. Louis.

EPISODE
Signing of Magna Carla.
Dramatis Personae:
King John.
Archbishop Stephen Langton.
Baron Fitzwalter.
Bishops, Earls and Barons.
Men at Arms.
Retainers, Clerks, etc.
Papal Legate.
Presented by St. George's Chapel, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
Wycliffe and the Poor Preachers.
Dramatis Personae:
John Wycliffe.
Preachers.
Presented by St. Andrew's Mission, St. Louis.

[24] Specially contributed by VIDA D. SCUDDER
for the
Pageant of the Church
________

FROM the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, religious life in England was not differentiated from that on the Continent. In vain Stephen Langton, turning against the Pope who had appointed him, led the struggle for English freedom, and bade the clergy disregard the Interdict of Innocent as he heartened the barons to wrest Magna Charta from the king; the Roman system remained in full force. Religious restlessness and criticism were rarely absent; on the other hand, the Catholic and Christian life temporarily involved with the Roman control never perished; these were centuries notable for great saints, and for many holy men and women uncanonized.

At the opening of the thirteenth century rose the Religious Orders founded by Francis and Dominic. The Franciscans came to England in 1224, at the exact period "when for the first time since the Conquest a national consciousness was asserting itself." Their eager reception by all classes showed how fervent was English faith, while Franciscans like William of Occam kept the tradition of English Christianity at its highest. In the fourteenth century, mystics like Richard Rolle and Mother Juliana proved that the mediaeval temper of contemplation could issue in burning love for God.

Later in the same century, when the Great Schism had thrown the Papacy open to scandal, protests against the corruptions of Rome became more outspoken. The Orders were by this time in decline; but their passion for evangelical unworldliness was inherited by Wycliffe and his followers. Wycliffe's early writings pleaded for a form of Christian democracy and communism, basing the right to Lordship and possession not on office, but on sanctity. He spent his later strength protesting against the temporal power of the Pope, and the doctrine of transubstantiation, but he and his school rendered more positive service by placing the Scriptures within reach of the people.

The middle ages showed no successful schisms; had Wesley lived then he might have founded a Religious Order instead of separating from the Church. Poems [24/25] like "The Vision of Piers Plowman" prove how far acceptance of authority was consistent with boldness: "I will seek Truth first ere I see Rome," cries one of Langland's pilgrims. None the less, Holy Church remained the Mother indeed, the object of supreme devotion. But as time passed she invited attack more and more. After the suppression of Wycliffe's disciples, the Lollards, the fifteenth century was stagnant; till early in the sixteenth, the New Learning, fathered by men like Colet, More and Erasmus, revealed deep springs of spiritual vitality. These men illustrated also the persistence of the sturdy English type of Christianity. Bede and Colet would have felt quite at home together.

These Oxford scholars were sons of the Renaissance; they were also precursors of the Reformation. When, later, the Reformation ripened in England, it possessed a special character. In part of Europe, the Reformed bodies under Zwingli and Calvin developed into forms of extreme individualism. In Germany, the Lutheran Church, though more conservative in doctrine and worship, broke the historic continuity. But in England, the Church, throwing off the yoke of Rome with its incidental evils, reverted simply to the type which had preceded the Synod of Whitby. The Prayer-Book, with its wonderful transference of noble Latin into noble English, preserved the best portions of the ancient Liturgy and thus ensured continuity in Christian worship and experience; while the Orders, remaining intact, ensued unity on formal lines with the Church of the ages.

[26] GROUP 6
ECCLESIASTICAL LIBERTY RESTORED
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
_________

CAXTON'S PRINTING PRESS

Printing became a veritable handmaid to religion. The Bible, translated into the vernacular, was printed in folio form and chained to desks in many churches, where daily large numbers would be found listening to, or themselves reading, the great Book of God. This resulted in the hastening of the day when freedom of thought, the inalienable right of everyone, was to be restored.

ENGLAND REPUDIATES PAPAL SUPREMACY

Contrary to the general accepted theory, that Henry VIII compelled the Church to renounce Rome--it is clearly established, beyond doubt, that the repudiation of the temporal authority of the Pope was the act of the nation as a whole, voiced, both through ecclesiastical and civil channels. In matters spiritual, the English Church never severed herself from Rome, it was solely the act of the Roman Curia.

CORONATION OF EDWARD THE VI

The period was one of Reformation, both Catholic and Protestant. The Council of Trent was a reforming body, issuing decrees; and the Roman Church put forth a reformed breviary at this time; the English Church, by direction of Edward the VI, formulated articles of religion and composed a Prayer Book; and the Protestant parties of Europe formed their Confessions. Amongst all bodies, sincerity of purpose was the dominant note, and that purpose was to lead men into the Kingdom of Heaven.

BURNING OF CRANMER

Extreme measures are always regrettable; and in the persecutions for religion, which marked the period, both Catholic and Protestant parties were equally guilty in this respect. Cranmer is typical of good men on both sides, to whom principle was more precious than life.

[27] GROUP 6
ECCLESIASTICAL LIBERTY RESTORED
________

TABLEAU
Caxton's Printing Press.
Dramatis Personae:
Edward IV.
Queen.
Caxton.
Princes and Princesses.
Courtiers and Ladies in Waiting.
Apprentices.
Presented by St. Stephen's Church, Ferguson, Mo.

EPISODE
England Repudiates Papal Supremacy.
Dramatis Personae:
Henry VIII.
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Archbishop of York.
Thomas Cranmer.
Thomas Cromwell.
Bishops and Peers.
Gentlemen in Waiting.
Palace Guards.
A Jongleur.
Presented by Ascension and St. Paul's
Overland Park Parishes, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
Coronation of Edward VI.
Dramatis Personae:
Edward VI.
Bishops.
Peers and Peeresses.
Yeomen of the Guard.
Presented by Ascension Parish, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
The Burning of Cranmer.
Dramatis Personae:
Archbishop Cranmer.
Divines.
Soldiers.
Populace.
Presented by Calvary Parish, St. Louis.

[28] Specially contributed by ALICE FRENCH (OCTAVE THANET)
for the
Pageant of the Church
________

ITS immeasurable importance unsuspected, the earliest printing press in England was set up by William Caxton, sometime of the worshipful guild of St. John (illuminators), once a mercer, for years the financial advisor of the Duchess Margaret, writer and student and experimenter at Bruges during two years, learning the new art of copying. He established his printing press in the almony at Westminster at the sign of the Red Pale. This was in September, A. D. 1478. The press, like the earlier one of Gutenberg, was of wood, operated by a screw with a handle which pressed the paper on the type page, lying on the bed of solid wood or stone, and was then laboriously uplifted to remove the copy. The early printing press must have been incredibly slow, judged by modern standards, but it was incredibly fast compared to the hand-copying which it superseded. The earliest pictures of presses depict an upright frame with a solid wooden or stone bed whereon were placed the type pages; the power being given by a movable handle in a screw, which screwed the platen down over the paper on the inked type.

How the Protestant movement could have succeeded without the wide circulation of the Bible, which the printing press made possible, is hard to conceive.

King Henry the Eighth was never a docile subject of the Church of Rome, in spite of his pamphlet against Luther and his papal reward of the title of Defender of the Faith, bestowed by Leo X. He shared the English irritation over any overt manifestation of the papal power; he was uneasily conscious of the abuses in the monasteries; and to some extent he felt the rising tide of the very revolt against Rome which he denounced. Probably from many more motives than his desire to divorce his elderly invalid of a wife and to marry Anne Boleyn he was driven towards his final break with the Pope. In 1521 he wrote his pamphlet attacking Luther. In 1531 the English clergy had to make peace by recognizing the king as "the Supreme Head of the Church, so far as the law of Christ would allow." But it was not until 1533 that a bill passed both houses of parliament to the same effect; Gardiner and Sir Thomas More had been able to block the passage of the first bill proposed in the House of Lords; although Henry was authorized in 1532 to "stop the payments of annates to Rome."

Between these dates dissatisfaction had steadily grown among the English of all classes. There still remained a residuum of the followers of Wycliffe and the readers of the earliest Bible, there was unrest and a leaning to the "new doctrine" among the merchants and the lesser clergy, and there was, among the nobility and populace alike, a patriotic irritation over the claims of the pope. This latter feeling was not religious, but it predisposed the men who felt it to favour the reformers--possibly, also to condone Henry's repudiation of his wife, and his marrying Anne Boleyn. Cranmer pronounced Henry's marriage valid and his former marriage null and void; and in 1534 Clement VII drew up his [28/29] bull of excommunication. But he did not publish it; as he needed the support of both the great princes of the Roman faith on his side; and at this time Charles and Francis were bitter rivals, at the point of war.

In 1534 Henry obtained from Parliament the Act of Supremacy. The dissolution of the monasteries followed during the years, between 1534 and 1539, the Act being passed by the parliament of 1536, which accepted the report of the visitors and permitted the king to dissolve the monasteries and dispose of their property.

The English Church by these measures, without disturbing its historical continuity, became independent of the authority of Rome. In 1536, Convocation assembled with the houses of Parliament. The Clergy, as well as the laity, considered the situation too perilous and perplexing to be longer endured. Gardiner, Lee, Bonner, Tunstall, Hilsey, Cranmer and Latimer, the strongest advocates of the old order and of the new, were present. And Hugh Latimer preached his famous sermon "The Children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light."

To this Convocation King Henry sent a body of articles which embody the rudiments of the later statement of doctrine of the Anglican Church. The articles were debated in convocation and passed. After the close of the convocation the government issued an order to the parish churches commanding the providing for each parish a Bible in the English tongue, as well as the Latin, the same to be laid "in the quire for every man that will to read and look therein." In 1536 there appeared in London, published "cum privilegio, and dedicated to Henry VIII, the first complete copy of the English Bible." This was mainly from Tyndal's translation.

In 1537 Edward the Sixth, only lawful son of Henry VIII, was born, and twelve days later his mother died. On a bleak January morning, ten years later, the Earl of Hertford, his uncle, left the room where his father lay dead, and hurried into the country to the Prince of Wales, who was now king. A delicate lad, hardly ten years old, was crowned King of England and began a mighty movement which was to extend across the ocean and to have results beyond imagining.

[30] GROUP 7
THE ENGLISH CHURCH REGAINS
HER AUTONOMY
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
________

CONSECRATION OF PARKER

The question as to the validity of English orders is nearly ceasing to be an open one with opponents; position after position has been abandoned by impugners, and it is the opinion of several distinguished historians and Canonists of other Communions, that the fact of the regularity of English orders cannot be denied. Archbishop Matthew Parker was consecrated by at least two bishops who had themselves been consecrated according to the Sarum rite, viz.: Barlow and Hodgkins.

ELIZABETH RECEIVING NEWS OF HER
DEPOSITION BY ROME

Two facts are worthy of notice at this period:

1. The Papal authorities made overtures to the Queen stating their willingness to accept the Book of Common Prayer if the Queen would recognize Papal Supremacy.

2. An Invitation was sent to the Elizabethan Bishops to join the sessions of the Council of Trent on the same conditions.

Such recognition of Rome was refused, and then, and only then, was the bull of greater Excommunication issued against England.

JAMES THE I. RECEIVING A COPY OF
THE BIBLE FROM THE TRANSLATORS

How great a part the authorized version of the Bible has played in civilization will never be known in time; suffice to say that to the English-speaking race, it has been guide and consoler; teacher and friend; a fount of language and expression; and the basis of understanding betwixt man and man.

[31] GROUP 7
THE ENGLISH CHURCH REGAINS
HER AUTONOMY
________

TABLEAU
Consecration of Archbishop Parker.
Dramatis Personae:
Dr. Parker.
Bishop Barlow.
Bishop Scory.
Bishop Coverdale.
Bishop Hodgkins.
Archdeacons Bellingham and Gest.
Registrars.
Presented by St. Peter's Parish, St. Louis.

EPISODE
Queen Elizabeth receiving news of her deposition by Rome.
Dramatis Personae:
Queen Elizabeth.
Sir Walter Raleigh.
Thomas Sackville, a poet.
John Harrington, a poet.
The Lord Chamberlain.
Peers and Peeresses.
Pages and Musicians.
Presented by St. Peter's Parish, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
The Translators Presenting the Bible to James I.
Dramatis Personae:
James I.
Bishops.
Courtiers.
Presented by Epiphany Mission, St. Louis.

 

[32] Specially contributed by LEWIS STOCKTON
for the
Pageant of the Church
________

THE Reformation of the English Church began with Wycliffe, who in 1363 translated the Bible, and was completed in the reign of Elizabeth, when 9,400 of the clergy, being 98 per cent or all but 189, accepted the English Book of Common Prayer.

The Prayer Book shows the Church of England to have conserved its historic continuity as an organism, through its bishops, with the Church of the earliest ages. It shows the English Church, with its national liberty restored, to have conserved the ancient Faith of the Creeds, which proclaims the coequality of the Christ with the Father and which is to be the lever to overthrow all tyranny, whether of Church or State or of the destructive intellectualism which would reject all that does not commend itself to the limited mind of mortals. And the Prayer Book shows that the English Church has reduced Christianity to its simplest terms, in that Christian character is emphasized: "We are to follow the example of our Saviour Christ and to be made like unto Him."

With the restoration of liberty to the National Church, and of primitive Christian doctrine and ethics, naturally, there came a renewal of the propulsive spiritual energy which characterized the Primitive Church.

Laud, when Bishop of London, was devising plans for a local Episcopate for the American Church (which was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London). But his troubles interrupted the project. In 1699 the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray sailed for Maryland as Commissioner. On his return to England, with the support of Archbishop Tenison and of Compton, Bishop of London, Dr. Bray received from King William III letters patent for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, on the 16th of June, 1701. This Society is generally known as "The Venerable Society," and to it the Church in the American Colonies owed its gratitude for its nurturing care.

Missionaries of the English Church had been first in the field in Virginia in 1585, and in Maine in 1605. And when this nation secured its independence, the American Episcopal Church became an independent National Church, with Bishops, Liturgy, Apostolic Doctrine, and the Breaking of the Bread, in the same year that our national government was organized.

As the first national historic Church here she has the title deed to "mission and jurisdiction." The adaptability of this Church, and of her Prayer Book, to [32/33] democratic conditions is the guarantee of her perpetual youth, and the hope of comprehensive Church unity in America.
Space will permit mention of the labors in England and America of the Rev. John Wesley, a loyal priest of the Church of England, and of Mr. Robert Raikes, a layman of that Church, who in 1780 established the first Sunday School and gave thirty years of his life in extending his undertaking. These Sunday Schools were the beginning of popular education and the germ of our American Public School System.

Thus the American Episcopal Church is a part of the Divine Society which began its Christian organic existence on the Day of Pentecost, which was present by its British Bishops at the great Council which set forth the Nicene Creed, which is part of the continuing organic body which has, in all the ages since, borne witness to the Resurrection of our Lord, and whose progress has always meant the progress of the race. This Church, with the same Faith as the primitive Church, became the Old Church in the New Land, freed from Papal Supremacy by the English Reformation, freed from connection with any civic government by our American Constitution, free to establish Christ's Kingdom over this free people.

"His Kingdom still increasing;
A Kingdom without end."

[34] GROUP 8
THE EVANGELIZATION OF AMERICA
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG.
________

PREACHING AT DRAKE'S BAY, CALIFORNIA

The first known religious service in English on this continent was held in 1587, when the good ship "The Golden Hynd" touched the shores of California, and her commander, Sir Francis Drake, requested the ship's chaplain, the Rev. Francis Fletcher, to hold a service of thanksgiving for their safe voyage from England.

THE SETTLEMENT AT JAMESTOWN

The American Church really began her life in the year 1606, at Jamestown, Virginia. In that year, under a charter from King James I, of England, the Virginia Company began to colonize, and part of its work was to plant the Church of England on these shores. Under the leadership of their chaplain, the Rev. Robert Hunt, regular services were begun; and from this small beginning,--this seed sown in the wilderness,--the great American Church of today traces her ancestry.

THE S. P. G. MISSION TO N. CAROLINA

The Venerable English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was established in 1701 for the purpose of assisting the work of the Church in the colonies, both among the English settlers and the natives. Large numbers of laborers had by this time been brought from Africa for work in the plantations of Carolina. To these specifically, the Society sent out, in 1702, the Rev. Samuel Thomas, who organized the first mission to the colored race in this country.

[34] GROUP 8
THE EVANGELIZATION OF AMERICA
________

TABLEAU
Preaching at Drake's Bay, California.
Dramatis Persona:
Sir Francis Drake.
The Rev. Francis Fletcher.
Officers and Seamen, Indians.
Presented by St. Michael's Parish, St. Louis.

EPISODE
Jamestown.
Dramatis Personae:
Captain John Smith.
Captain Newport.
The Rev. Robert Hunt.
Soldiers, Sailors and Colonists.
Indians.
Presented by Emanuel Parish, Webster Groves,
and Grace Parish, Kirkwood.

TABLEAU
S. P. G. Mission to North Carolina.
Dramatis Personae:
The Rev. Samuel Thomas.
Men, Women and Children.
Presented by All Saints Parish, St. Louis.

[36] Specially contributed by FREDERICK N. JUDSON
for the
Pageant of the Church
________

THE Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States was organized after the War of Independence from the scattered parishes of the Church of England in different parts of the colonies as an independent national church in the City of Philadelphia in 1789, immediately following the adoption of the Federal Constitution in the United States. The separate organization of the Clergy and Laity and the Bishops, both governed by the Constitution and canons of the American Church, after the analogy of the organization of the Federal Government, was really a perpetuation of the principles and spiritual life of the English Church, adapted to the conditions of our American nationality; and thus it became truly a national church.

As it expanded with the growth of the country and with the zealous labors of missionary bishops and others, the essential national character of the organization was shown in the Civil War. Though its bishops, priests and laymen were divided in their sympathies, as the country itself was divided, and many served according to their convictions in the great armies, yet so effectively were political discussions avoided in the church that there was no recognized division. Though a southern church was organized in the Confederate States during the War, the roll of the southern dioceses was called in the triennial convention of 1862, and in the convention of 1865, after the collapse of the Confederacy, the southern bishops, priests and laymen were welcomed in their places as though there had been no interruption by the war. This singular national character of the church was an effective agency in restoring the Union and in healing the wounds of the Civil War. Thus in the reconstruction days the Episcopal Church was the only protestant church which existed in different sections of the country without division into southern and northern organizations, and the writer can bear personal witness that before its altars Federals and Confederates worshipped together.

[37] Strong in the great centres of population, as was the early church in the dawn of Christianity, the Episcopal Church has expanded in its home and foreign missions; and with its ancient and reverent ritual and its broad spirit of charitable toleration it embraces all classes of our people in its great national organization.

[38] GROUP 9
THE CHURCH OF THE AGES
IN MODERN AMERICA
DESCRIPTIVE NOTES BY THE REV. GEORGE LONG
________

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Not only did the American nation rise into being by this supreme act of our fathers, but also the national American Church. A national Church is not less Catholic because she becomes independent; she simply takes her ranking place amongst the many national Churches which make up the Body of Christ. The Declaration of Independence led to the severance of this Church from the English Church, her mother, so far as government was concerned; but the closest comity and affection has always been maintained. It is worthy to note that out of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 36 were communicants of the Episcopal Church.

BISHOP SEABURY'S RECEPTION
BY HIS CLERGY
Extract from the Memoir of Bishop Jarvis.

"On the Second of August, 1785, the clergy of Connecticut assembled in convocation at Middletown, to meet and receive their Bishop. Eleven were present, with the Rev. Benjamin Moore from New York and the Rev. Samuel Parker from Boston. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury attended upon this convention and his letters of consecration being requested by the same, they were produced and read; whereby it appeared to this convention that he hath been duly and canonically consecrated a Bishop by the Bishop of the Church of Scotland. * * * The Bishop being introduced and seated in his chair at the altar, the clergy assembled at the rails. Their address to him was read by the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, after which the Bishop read his answer; and then the clergy, kneeling at the rails, received the Apostolic blessing."

BISHOP TUTTLE'S EARLY WORK

"Spend and be Spent," is surely the motto underlying the labors of the venerable Presiding Bishop. May God abundantly bless the work that His servant has done and is doing, and crown his closing years with the peace that passeth understanding.

[39] GROUP 9
THE CHURCH OF THE AGES
IN MODERN AMERICA
________

TABLEAU
Signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Dramatis Personae:
Thomas Hancock and the other Signers of the Declaration.
Presented by St. Stephen's House, St. Louis

TABLEAU
Bishop Seabury's reception by his Clergy.
Dramatis Personae:
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury.
The Rev. Mr. Jarvis.
Clergy.
Laity.
Presented by St. Augustine's Parish, St. Louis.

TABLEAU
Bishop Tuttle's early Work.
Dramatis Personae:
Cowboys and Miners.
Presented by St. Stephen's House, St. Louis.

[40] FINALE
Terminus ad Quem.
"The one far off divine event
Toward which the whole Creation moves."--Tennyson.

"INTO THE BEYOND"

From Bethlehem to St. Louis is a long journey down the ages, and the "Little Child" has led His saints all the way. The world is being saved by the leakage out of it into the Kingdom of God, and the time is steadily approaching when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms of Our Lord and of His Christ." For this and all His mercies . . . laus Deo.

To the Members of the General Convention of 1916:

Dear Friends: For you specially we have prepared and presented this Pageant.

We thank you warmly for your attendance. We trust you will depart kindly disposed towards the hundreds of us who have tried our best to speak & walk & act true parts in this depicting of Church Life & American History.

Will you not join with us now whole heartedly in the acclaim,--Long live the Church. Long Live America. God bless them both.

Daniel S. Tuttle
Bishop of Missouri and Presiding Bishop
St. Louis, October 3, 1916.

[41] Words of the Episodes
by
The Rev. Frederic F. Kramer
________

Incidental Music
by
The Rev. Geo. Long
and
Mr. Noel Poepping

[43] EPISODE No. 1
________

THE COUNCIL OF JERUSALEM

A Glade on the Mount of Olives.
Dramatis Persona:
The twelve Apostles.
St. Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Titus.
Deacons, Elders, Pharisees and Brethren.

S. JAMES: Men and brethren, Barnabas and Paul have come from Antioch with serious matters for our judgment, and we have come together to consider them.

S. PETER: Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.

S. JAMES: Let Barnabas and Paul speak.

S. BARNABAS: Brother Paul will speak for both of us.

S. PAUL: Men and brethren, some days ago Barnabas and I met with the pillars of the Church, and showed them how the brethren in Antioch, who came to us from the Gentiles, were much distressed by the words of certain men, who came to us from Judea, saying "Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Now ye all know how the Lord Jesus chose me out, to bear his name to the Gentiles. Ye also know that I preached Christ in every synagogue, whithersoever the Spirit led me on my journeys. And so I laboured among the uncircumcision, as did Peter among the circumcision. And a great door and effectual was opened unto me. Through my preaching many Gentiles were turned to Christ, through signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ, making no difference between Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian. For the Holy Ghost that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.

S. JAMES: Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. Ye have also heard at the mouth of Paul, what great things the Holy Ghost hath done among the Gentiles. To all this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written. After this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon [43/44] whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Wherefore, I have written my sentence in the form of a letter to the brethren in Antioch. This I did at an assembly of the chief brethren, and this is the letter. "The Apostles and Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

"Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law; to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well."

As ye have heard, brethren,

We have chosen Barnabas and Silas to be our representatives to Antioch and do now send them away with Barnabas and Paul.
(Hands the letter to Barnabas.)

Dramatis Personae:
Constantine, the emperor.
Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch.
The Bishop of Bethlehem.
Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria.
Athanasius, his deacon.
Arius, a Presbyter of Alexandria.
Bishops, and friends of the Emperor.

O! Gladdening, Holy, Glorious Light,
Thou Jesus Christ, the Blessed One,
Thou Son of Heaven's Eternal God.

________

We see the sun depart from day,
The evening light so gently fall,
And hymn, with awe, the Triune God.

________

Through every season, by all men
With universal hallowed voice,
Thy Name be praised and glorified,
Life Giver and O! Son of God!
--Translated by The Rev. Geo. Long.

 

[46] EUSTATHIUS:

Most mighty prince, and servant of our God;
These fathers of the Church, at thy command
Did meet, both to define and to proclaim
The truth, as found in our Lord Jesus Christ.
On this momentous day, the Church of God
Will herald forth the truth, by God inspired.
What could more fitting be, most sovereign prince,
Since by thy clement act we here are met,
Than for thee to grace the seat of honor?

CONSTANTINE:

No learning do I own, O! holy father,
Nor skill to judge betwixt your disputations.
Mine's but a soldier's faith, simple and strong.
The deep things of the Christ I leave to others,
And follow with a child-like trust, the flaming cross.

EUSTATHIUS:

O that we all were children in the faith!
But human minds will ever seek to pass
The limits set for them by God, and strive
To reach the infinite by finite means,
To learn the everlasting mind of God.
But let your majesty persuaded be
To grant our wish, and honour us today.

CONSTANTINE:

The honor will be mine; I thank the Church.

Takes middle chair, Eustathius sits at his right and the Bishop of Bethlehem on his left.

CONSTANTINE [rising]:

It was, my friends, my dear and cherished wish,
That I might one day this convention see.
Now, having been indulged in this desire,
I thank my God, the ruler of us all,
For granting me this greatest blessing here
To see you all united in your minds.
Though I shall think the object of my prayers
And labors fully gained, when I shall see
You all united in the Faith, and with
But single purpose, work in harmony.
Endeavor then my friends, God's ministers,
To smooth all controversies, and to act
Like humble servants of the humble Christ.
Thus will ye be well pleasing in God's sight,
And me, your fellow servant, ye will bless.

EUSTATHIUS:

Let Arius appear and speak to us,
If he have aught to say in his defence.

[46] ARIUS

Most mighty prince, and fathers of the Church.
My words can but a repetition be
Of my belief, which ye have often heard;
I say, time was when God the Son was not;
A creature is the Son, as are we all.
Father and son are terms, which this doth prove:
"The eternal Father did the Son create
From nothing, as he did the universe.
Substantial Word and Wisdom, Christ was not
By which the Father all things did create,
But was by the eternal Wisdom made."
This Jesus was not God of God, I hold,
But man, in whom God was to men revealed.

EUSTATHIUS:

For days and weeks this council hath assayed
To prove to thee and thine that ye are wrong
To hold such perverse travesty of truth
Against the teachings of The Holy Church,
And contrary to the sacred Gospel's lore.
I now pronounce the judgment of the Church:
Thou, Arius, art declared an heretic;
As such thou art deprived of all thy rights
As presbyter, 'til thou repent thy fault.
And banished shalt thou be from native land,
'Til thee our Emperor's clemency recall.
And now, to guard the Church from errors' thrall
Touching the ever blessed Trinity,
There hath been drawn a symbolum of faith,
That all men everywhere may know the truth
As God revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now brother of the Church in Bethlehem,
Read thou this symbol and let all accept.

BISHOP OF BETHLEHEM (reads): "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made, both in heaven and in earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, descended, was incarnate, and was made man, and suffered, and rose again the third day; he ascended into heaven, and shall come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit."

EUSTATHIUS: Ye have now heard, and do ye say AMEN?

All but two bishops raise the right hand and say AMEN. Arius stands with folded arms and bowed head.

[48] EPISODE No. 3
THE ALLELUIA BATTLE

Scene--A valley.
Dramatis Personae:
S. Germanus.
A witch, Britons, Picts and Scots.

Enter Germanus, preceded by a monk bearing a rude cross, and followed by Britons, all men, unarmed, wearing the white robes of baptism. Psalm LXVIII. "Exsurgat Deus."

GERMANUS:

The Lord our God will not forsake us now;
His might and ready help ye now shall see.
He is the Lord of Hosts, all-conquering God;
And though the heathen rage to overwhelm,
Stand still, I pray, and ye shall see that power
By which He saved his own, in days of old.

A BRITON:

In days of old--but will He now appear
To crush these fierce and bloody Saxon wolves,
That gnash their teeth and thirst for British blood?
In days of old--sure, they be days of old,
But we are living now, and life is sweet.
The bitterness of death creeps to my heart.

GERMANUS:

Peace, peace. The sign baptismal still is wet
Upon thy brow, and dost thou doubt His power,
Whom thou didst choose to follow as thy Lord?
The Lord is ever mindful of His own;
And in this hour of need He will be near.

Enter two Britons from back, leading a heathen woman, who carries a branch of an oak.

ONE OF THE BRITONS:

Great father, this mad witch out on the wild
Was making magic signs and cursing God.

HEATHEN WOMAN:

Ha, ha! How can ye stand against our God;
God of the oak, who hurls the lightning down,
To crush his foes, and in the thunder speaks?
See ye his token, from the great oak sent.
By it I curse ye all; I curse your great--
(Falls dead.)

GERMANUS. (taking and raising the cross):

It was the hand of God; the Lord is near.

[48] GERMANUS:

Now brethren, hear me and obey my voice:
Whate'er I say, speak ye with one accord,
And ye shall see the glory of our God.

GERMANUS (shouts):

Up, Britons; up and lift the song of Heaven!

The Britons spring to their feet and sing:
"Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia."

The heathen, drop shields, swords and spears, and fly, shrieking
Germanus and the Britons go off singing the "Nunc Dimittis."

[49] EPISODE No. 4
S. AUGUSTINE AND THE BRITISH BISHOPS

Scene--S. Augustine's Oak.
S. Augustine.
The Abbot of Bangor.
British bishops.
Missionaries in Augustine's train. British monks.
British men and women.

AUGUSTINE:

It gives me joy to see that ye are come;
I trust ye have considered well the words
I spake in loving counsel and regard
When first we met beneath this mighty oak.
My Lord and teacher, on his seat in Rome,
Expects that ye will now submission make,
Confess your errors, and acknowledge me
The Primate sent by him to rule and guide.

ABBOT OF BANGOR:

Our Bishops are but meek and lowly men,
That speak not of submission nor of rule;
And by example guide their faithful flocks.
The Shepherd and the Bishop of our souls,
The Blessed Jesus Christ, spake not of "rule."
It is not meet, that thou, from o'er the seas
Shouldst thus presume to lord it over us,
And sitting like a king, these bishops greet.
What will it be when once we grant thy claims?
For me and for my monks, we'll keep from Rome.

FIRST BRITISH BISHOP:

Good abbot, peace, let not thine anger rise.
Good Brother Augustine, we now have come,
Not to submit to Rome; but to reply
To thy demands touching our practices.

AUGUSTINE:

'Tis well. Now Rome demands, by me her messenger,
That ye keep Easter, as doth all the West,
On the next Sunday after the full moon,
In Spring of year, when falls the equinox.

SECOND BRITISH BISHOP:

This thing we will not do; for as our pattern
Of the Holy Faith, the East we follow true.

[50] AUGUSTINE:

Further; when ye baptize the pope demands
Ye use the holy oil, for without chrism
The Sacrament is but irregular.

THIRD BRITISH BISHOP:

Again we must refuse. Not e'en the pope
Scarce dare to say, that the Apostles Blest,
Using but water for the Sacrament
When they baptized, did act irregular.

AUGUSTINE:

I well perceive that ye are obstinate
In this appeal to use of Eastern Church;
The West hath neither part nor lot with her.
The noble Gregory whose seal I bear
Sits firmly now in Peter's seat, and holds
The keys of heaven; ye have refused his grace.
Be ye Anathema, the cursed of God.
And may He smite you by the heathen sword.

FOURTH BRITISH BISHOP:

If God smite us, we know it will not be,
Good Augustine, from any prayer of thine,
But because we have not His voice obeyed.
Hitherto hath God brought this British Church,
Through stress and storm, and He will bless her still.

AUGUSTINE:

Self-willed ye are, thus boldly, without shame,
To flout the Roman Apostolic Church.
But hark ye and beware, for evil days
Will come upon the Church in which ye boast,
Because ye will not bow to me, who have
Authority from Rome to rule and guide.

ABBOT OF BANGOR:

Rude we may be, and poor taught in the faith,
But in imperious Rome we want no part.
And sure, we'll stand fast in the liberty
Whereby our Christ, through love, hath made us free;
And when we die, we'll trust His mercy still,
To take us home with all the saints of God.

[52] EPISODE No. 5
SIGNING OF MAGNA CARTA

Scene--Runnymede.
Dramatis Personae.
King John.
Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Robert Fitz-Walter, leader of the Barons.
The Papal Legate.
Bishops.
Barons.
Retainers.

KING JOHN:

Is this your fealty to me, your king,
To force me to forswear my powers thus,
And by compulsion yield me to your wish?
God's teeth! Am I a king or merely slave?
Are ye not English barons that have sworn
The knightly oath. "For England and St. George?"

FITZ-WALTER:

True knights we be, and barons of the realm,
And loyal sons to loyal English kings,
Which thou art not, but traitor to thine oath.
Army of God and of the Holy Church
Are we, sworn to free England from the shame
Of being fief to harsh, rapacious Rome.

LANGTON:

Though I am priest, and by the grace of Rome,
Archbishop, I am first an Englishman.
As priest, I yield obedience to the pope,
Who in things spiritual, doth rightly rule;
But as an Englishman, I must oppose
The holy pontiffs claim o'er temporals.

KING JOHN:

Have I not granted to the English Church,
Whate'er she wished in freedom, rule and power?

LANGTON:

True; and by this charter, which we now demand,
Her freedom will forever be secured.
The chiefest things, however, that we seek,
Are for the freemen of the realm, that they
May live secure by justice and by law.
This charter, by our English Church espoused,
Will curb and check the folly of our kings;
And in the bounds of reason keep their rights.
And now, your majesty, I must demand,
That you affix your hand and royal seal.

[53] KING JOHN:

God's feet! I will not sign, not on my life.
I've read it, pondered it, and weighed it well;
'Tis but an instrument to strip me bare
Of all my royal powers.

LANGTON:

If thou refuse
'Thou wilt not have, by going down of sun
Aught but thy life, and hanging by a hair.

KING JOHN:

This is rebellion, deep-dyed, doubly damned.
Perforce, I yield me to it, but beware
Thou Lord Archbishop, and ye recreant knights;
I still am king, and sure the time will come
When ye will feel the crushing hand of Rome.

Signs the charter.

LANGTON:

The deed is done. We have foundations laid
On which our English liberties will rest.

Fanfares and shouts

[54] EPISODE No. 6
ENGLAND REPUDIATES PAPAL SUPREMACY

Scene Room in the King's Palace.
Dramatis Persona!:
Henry VIII.
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Archbishop of York.
Thomas Cromwell.
Thomas Cranmer.
Peers, bishops, doctors and retainers.

SONG WRITTEN BY KING HENRY VIII:

Youth will needs have dalliance,
Of good or ill some pastance:
Company, methinks the best
All thoughts and fancies to digest,
For idleness is chief mistress
Of vices all:
Then who can say but mirth and play
Is best of all.

Pastime with good company
I love, and shall until I die;
Grudge who will, but not deny,
So, God be pleased, this life will I,
For my pastance, hunt, sing and dance;
My heart is set:
All goodly sport to my comfort,
Who shall me let?

HENRY VIII:

We greet you, holy fathers of the Church,
And learned doctors of this English realm.
We did command your presence here, that, ye
Might learn our resolution touching Rome,
By parliament supported and by right.

ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY:

I trust your highness will not think me bold
If first I read what Convocation hath
Decreed, that you may know the Church's mind.

HENRY VIII:

Pray read you on, my Lord of Canterbury.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY:

"It may please the king's most noble Grace, having tender compassion to the wealth of this his realm, which hath been so greatly extenuate and hindered by the payment of the annates, and by other exactions and slights, by which the [54/55] treasure of this land hath been carried and conveyed beyond the mountains to the court of Rome, that the subjects of this realm be brought to great penury, and by necessity be forced to make their most humble complaint for stopping and restraining the said annates, and other exactions and expilations, taken for indulgences and dispensations, legacies, and delegacies, and other feats, which were too long to remember: To cause the said unjust exactions of annates to cease, and to be foredone forever, by the act of his Grace's high Court of Parliament."

HENRY VIII:

This doth but touch things temporal, I think;
Another and a deeper point remains:
Shall the fifth Pius our chief bishop be?
What say the universities?

THOMAS CRANMER:

May't please
Your majesty: Oxford and Cambridge hold:
"Quod Romanus episcopus non habet majorem jurisdictionem,
sibi a Deo collatam, in hoc regno, quam alius quivis externus Episcopus."

HENRY VIII:

Good Master Cranmer, bear in mind, that some
Like Cromwell here did not matriculate,
Let's have it in good English.

THOMAS CRANMER:

Then please you:
The Roman bishop may not, under God,
Have greater jurisdiction in this realm
Than any other foreign bishop may.

HENRY VIII:

Do ye then contemplate that we forsake
The ancient faith held by our English Church?

THOMAS CROMWELL:

Nay, nay, your majesty! let me now read
An act of parliament, touching this thing:

"Provided always, that this act, nor any thing or things therein contained, shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded that your grace, your nobles and subjects intend by the same to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any things concerning the very articles of the Catholic faith of Christendom, or in any other things declared by Holy Scripture and the word of God, necessary for your and their Salvation."

HENRY VIII:

'Tis well, I know your minds, now will I speak.
Ye have expressed what hath been in my heart;
Rome shall not tithe nor toll in English land.
In things that appertain unto the State,
Things temporal, your king and parliament
Shall now by right and by enactments rule;
Things of the faith, our Apostolic line
Shall keep inviolate, by ancient rule.
England for Englishmen, and God for all.
God save the State.

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK:

And may God save the King.

OMNES:

God save the King.

[56] EPISODE No. 7
QUEEN ELIZABETH RECEIVING NEWS OF HER DEPOSITION
BY ROME

Scene--A Room in the Palace.
Dramatis Personae:
Queen Elizabeth.
The Lord Chamberlain.
Sir Walter Raleigh.
Thomas Sackville, the poet.
John Harrington, the poet.
The Lord Chamberlain, Peers and Peeresses.
Maids of Honor, pages and musicians.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

Come, Master Sackville, now rehearse to us
Some latest rhyme, some offspring of thy muse.
We of the court do need some sober thoughts,
To keep the balance well, and to stir us
To meditate on life's realities
For we're too much inclined to gaiety.

THOMAS SACKVILLE:

Your majesty doth greatly honor me,
And with your pensive mood I'll harmonize
My verse, and pitch the key in minor strain:

And, by and by, a dumb, dead corpse we saw,
Heavy, and cold, the shape of Death aright,
That daunts all earthly creatures to his law,
Against whose force in vain it is to fight;
Ne peer, ne princes, nor ne mortal wight,
Ne towns, ne realms, cities, ne strongest tower,
But all, perforce must yield unto his power.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

Stop, stop! I'm all o'ercome with shakes and creeps;
Thou takest us, by far, too serious.
This is no burying, I'll have thee know:
We see no need of dirges, yet awhile.
Come, Master Harrington, drive off this gloom
With some love jingle, delicately rhymed.

JOHN HARRINGTON: (Sings)

Whence comes my love? Oh heart, disclose;
It was from cheeks that shamed the rose,
From lips that spoil the ruby's praise,
From eyes that mock the diamond's blaze:
Whence comes my woe? as freely own;
Ah me! 'twas from a heart like stone.
[57] The blushing cheek speaks modest mind,
The lips befitting words most kind,
The eye does tempt to loves' desire,
And seems to say 'tis Cupid's fire;
Yet all so fair but speak my moan,
Sith nought doth say the heart of stone.

Why thus, my love, so kind bespeak
Sweet eye, sweet lip, sweet blushing cheek--
Yet not a heart to save my pain;
Oh Venus take thy gifts again.
Make not so fair to cause our moan,
Or make a heart that's like our own.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

Now here's a sonnet worthy of the name,
Human withal, teeming with strong, young life.
You well have pleased us, Master Harrington.

Enters the Lord Chamberlain.

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN:

Pardon, your majesty, but here's treason.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

Treason? 'ods life! Art mad, Lord Chamberlain?

LORD CHAMBERLAIN:

This papal bull--nailed to the Palace gate
Of my Lord of London, was this evening found.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

A papal bull? What Now doth Rome declare?

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN: (reading bull).

Your majesty is excommunicated.
And by the pope deprived of all title
To your three kingdoms. From oath of fealty
Your subjects are absolved, and upon pain
Of Excommunication, are ordered
No longer to obey your majesty.

QUEEN ELIZABETH:

Gadzooks! What thunderings are these from the
Italian hills? And this to me, a queen?
Me excommunicated? He's in his dotage,
This presumptuous pope, in claiming power
O'er merry England and o'er England's queen.
Deprived of all title to my kingdoms?
'Ods life! By curses and anathemas
'Tis hoped to win this much desired end.

(Laughingly.)

The power of Rome is but a memory here;
The fear of Rome is now a vanished dream.
This bull makes no impression on our mind.
Let's turn to other things; on with the dance.

Pavan

[58] EPISODE No. 8
JAMESTOWN

Scene--James Island in Virginia.
Dramatis Personal:
Captain John Smith.
Captain Christopher Newport.
The Rev. Robert Hunt.
An Indian Chief.
Colonists, soldiers, sailors and Indians.

CAPTAIN SMITH: A fair land and a fine broad river to which you have brought us, Captain Newport.

CAPTAIN NEWPORT: It's been a long and hard voyage, Captain Smith; but I hope there's fair weather ahead for the colony.

CAPTAIN SMITH: Here come the savages. Keep your men in hand, and your eyes open for treachery.

CHAPLAIN HUNT: The Lord hath granted us a safe voyage, and it is most seemly that we give thanks for His mercies. Let us sing in His praise the psalm, "Dominus regit me."

The Lord is my shepherd: therefore can I lack nothing.

He shall feed me in a green pasture;
And lead me forth beside the waters of comfort.

He shall convert my soul:
And bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff comfort me.

Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me:
Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full.

But thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

CHAPLAIN HUNT: Let us now kneel, and let every man, from the ground of his heart, thank the Lord for all His benefits, secretly.

CHAPLAIN HUNT. (after the prayer): The Psalmist saith, they that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters, these men see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. This have we seen, brethren, and we have also suffered the stormy wind and the tempest. But now are we glad, for the Lord hath brought us to the haven where we would be.

[59] I would direct your minds to two things, briefly; FIRST, We ought to quit ourselves like men, in this battle to conquer the wilderness. It will demand all our courage, spiritual, and all our strength, physical, to subdue this desert, and make it blossom like the rose, but let us remember that the Lord of hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our refuge. At the Communion now to follow ask His aid in this our enterprise.

SECONDLY, I would lead your minds to consider what this service meaneth. It meaneth that we have brought the Church of England to the uttermost parts of the earth. So be we fulfillers of the command of our blessed Lord. Go ye out into all the world, and make disciples of all nations. It behooveth us, therefore, to consider what manner of men we ought to be. Now have we brought the sound of the Gospel to the ears of these savages. The Lord will, I doubt not, open their ears, that they may both hear and perceive, But they have eyes that see. Let us therefore, so deport ourselves as faithful members of the Church of England, that our conduct become not a stumbling block to these savages' minds. Let us walk uprightly and in the fear of the Lord. Let us be gentle and merciful, even tender-hearted, that the light of the Gospel, brought by us, may also shine in these savage hearts. Amen.

As Introit, let us now sing the psalm "Laudate dominum." (They sing)

O praise God in his holiness:
Praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him in his noble acts;
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him in the sound of the trumpet:
Praise him upon the lute and harp.
Praise him in the cymbals and dances;
Praise him upon the strings and pipe.
Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals:
Praise him upon the loud cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath:
Praise the Lord.
Gloria.

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