Proposed Changes to The Act Of Succession

An indicator of embarrassment at the C16th Protestant Reformation and the Glorious Revolution can be seen in the campaign that is being fronted by David Cameron and Nick Clegg in their effort to make changes to the historic Act of Succession, specifically removing the clause that prevents “papists,” or those who marry a Roman Catholic, from ascending to the British throne.

Even Tony Blair’s government blocked a move to revise these succession laws, claiming that it would raise too many constitutional issues and was unnecessary at the time.

Back in December 1978, (when media speculation suggested that Prince Charles might marry a Roman Catholic), Enoch Powell MP defended the provision that excludes Roman Catholics from ascending the throne, claiming his objection was not rooted in religious bigotry but in political considerations.

He stated a Roman Catholic monarch would mean the acceptance of a source of authority external to the realm (a Roman Catholic monarch would, like all Roman Catholics, owe allegiance to the Pope) and “in the literal sense, foreign to the Crown-in-Parliament ... .”

“Between Roman Catholicism and Royal Supremacy there is, as St Thomas More concluded, no reconciliation.”

Powell stated that a Roman Catholic crown would be the destruction of the Church of England because, “it would contradict the essential character of that church.”

He continued: “When Thomas Hobbes wrote that, 'the Papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof,' he was promulgating an enormously important truth. Authority in the Roman Church is the exertion of that imperium from which England in the 16th century finally and decisively declared its national independence as the alter imperium, the 'other empire,' of which Henry VIII declared, 'This realm of England is an empire' ... It would signal the beginning of the end of the British monarchy. It would portend the eventual surrender of everything that has made us, and keeps us still, a nation.”

On this 5th day of November, we do well to reflect with a sense of deep gratitude on God's hand of preservation upon our nation - and apply our hearts with earnest prayer to the Lord to long preserve our Protestant crown.

Our feeling is best expressed by the tremendous Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in his 'Morning Devotion' for November 5:

Quoting Isaiah 54:17 - "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" - Spurgeon recalled:

This day is notable in English history for two great deliverances wrought by God for us.

• On this day the plot of the Papists to destroy our Houses of Parliament was discovered, 1605.

While for our princes they prepare
In caverns deep a burning snare,
He shot from heaven a piercing ray,
And the dark treachery brought to day.

• And secondly - to-day is the anniversary of the landing of King William III, at Torbay, by which the hope of Popish ascendancy was quashed, and religious liberty was secured, 1688.

This day ought to be celebrated, not by the saturnalia of striplings, but by the songs of saints. Our Puritan forefathers most devoutly made it a special time of thanksgiving. There is extant a record of the annual sermons preached by Matthew Henry on this day. Our Protestant feeling, and our love of liberty, should make us regard its anniversary with holy gratitude.

Let our hearts and lips exclaim, "We have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the wondrous things which Thou didst in their day, and in the old time before them."

Thou hast made this nation the home of the gospel; and when the foe has risen against her, Thou hast shielded her. Help us to offer repeated songs for repeated deliverances. Grant us more and more a hatred of Antichrist, and hasten on the day of her entire extinction. Till then and ever, we believe the promise, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper."

Should it not be laid upon the heart of every lover of the gospel of Jesus on this day to plead for the overturning of false doctrines and the extension of divine truth? Would it not be well to search our own hearts, and turn out any of the Popish lumber of self-righteousness which may lie concealed therein?"