Herbert Malcolm Pearce

4 February 1912—25 January 1987

Sermon preached in Torrington Parish Church, transcribed from Fr Pearce’s notes after his death

My text is taken from the second chapter of the Revelation of St John, the tenth verse:

“Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.” In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Heresy is a wrong belief: believing anything which is opposed to what is held to be true, and to what the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church holds and teaches. Schism is the creating of a breach in the unity and faith held and maintained by the orthodox Society of Christ—the Church.

Those who reject the present proposals to ordain women to the Priesthood of the Church do not do so because they dislike women, or seek to subject women as such. They do so because they know that otherwise they would be approving of, and indeed committing themselves to, both heresy and schism against the Body of Christ, the Church. When I said this from the pulpit of my church in Staffordshire some ladies in the congregation rose noisily from their seats and left the church, slamming the door. I hope you will not do this because a few words which may be of interest to you will now follow.

January 30th, next Friday, ought to be a rather special day to every member of the Church to which we belong. At this time we should be considering certain principles of our Faith and the need of asserting them, in the schemes and proposals which are being formulated. Forermost anong these principles is that of the Apostolic ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons which has been retained in our Church from the time of the Apostles, and without which we should have no true Sacraments and no God‑given authority: without which, indeed, we should no longer belong to the true Church of Christ.

It is especially appropriate that we should think of this on January 30th because on January 30th 1649 the King of this realm of England, the temporal head of this Church to which we belong, gave his life on the scaffold in order to maintain and defend these very principles. King Charles I died at the hands of political and protestant agitators in order to preserve the Church of this realm in her integrity.

Let us refresh and perhaps enlighten our minds on this anniversary with the consideration of a few facts from history. If you have a Book of Common Prayer which was printed previous to the year 1859, you will find that it contains a special form of prayer with Collect, Epistle and Gospel, for commemorating King Charles the Martyr on January 30th, and the Kalendar of the Prayer Book contained exactly that designation on this day: “Jan. 30: King Charles, Martyr”. In reprinting the Prayer Book in 1859 this special service was omitted, but it was never intended to omit the martyr‑king’s name from the Kalendar: this was a mistake by the printers. The Society of King Charles the Martyr exists for the purpose of recognizing the great part played by Charles I in the history of our Church. What was that part?

King Charles I was crowned in Westininster Abbey on the Feast of the Purification, February 2 1626. The Bishop of Carlisle, Dr Senhouse, who preached on that occasion, took as his text the words from St John’s Revelations: “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life”. It was afterwards said that no more appropriate text could have been chosen: it was in fact a prophecy. Charles was a most faithful witness to three all-important principles—particularly essential in the person of a Sovereign: in the first place, the authority of the Church; secondly, the sanctity of home life as a divine institution; and thirdly, the piety of the individual.

There are people do not acknowledge the merits and virtues of Charles on account of what they would call the weaknesses and failures of his policies as ruler. This is no place or time to investigate these or to review his rulership. We would only admit that that he made mistakes in government and that he allowed himself to be misled. But surely this was due to his early training and the example of his Tudor predecessors. Certainly it should never be allowed to blind us to the fact that he lived a life of exemplary piety and that he died a martyr rather than betray the Church of England, knowing that Church to belong to the true Church of Christ in which resided the essential ordinances of the Christian religion. His title of martyr cannot be questioned by any orthodox churchman: he died at the hands of the so‑called puritans (Heaven knows in what way they were “pure”) rather than betray the Church of England: he would not sanction a new sect in its place; nor, would he approve a new and inadequate liturgy: he would not abolish episcopacy and have Presbyterianism instead, thank God!

So he had to give up his throne and be condemned to death for treason. He was a faithful witness to the Church of Christ.

Secondly, in death as in life, Charles was an example of domestic and personal virtue.

— Here Fr Pearce died —

Succeeding an immoral father and succeeded by an immoral son, in the centre of an immoral court and surrounded by immoral witnesses, the personal character of Charles remained unsullied. In his loving faithfulness to his wife and his loving care for his children, he was a paragon of virtue and a Christian example.

Thirdly, his life and death testified to the depth of his religion and his great love for God. He consecrated every Sunday and Holy Day with his presence at the Lord’s Service in the Lord’s House. His daily prayers, with his family whenever circumstances allowed, and his daily meditation on the Scriptures, were never omitted. He was responsible for that pious work “Eikon Basilike” and other writings. On the morning of his death he received the Blessed Sacrament after making his confession and then, ascending the scaffold, he spoke his last words to the devil‑driven mob who had clamoured for his execution.. “I freely forgive my enemies and pray that this sin be not laid to their charge. I die in the faith of the Church of England.” One of his critics, Clarendon, afterwards relented to such an extent that he could say, “Charles was most worthy of the title of an honest man: so great a lover of justice that no temptation could dispose him to wrongful action except that it was so disguised to him that he believed it to be just. He was the best Christian that the age in which he lived produced.”

A similar opinion very quickly came to be expressed by all who had really known him, and as soon as that wicked Cromwell was out of the way, Convocation decreed the formal canonization of Charles by the three‑fold method in use until the 10th century: that is the addition of his name to the Kalendar, the compilation of a Proper Office for his day, and dedication of churches under his patronage (there are at least six of them). We must hope and and pray that the day may not be far distant when our own branch of Christ’s Church will be reunited to the whole Catholic Body and Charles’s canonization ratified by an undivided Christendom.

Meanwhile let us, on our own part, be prepared to defend these principles of the Church for which the martyr‑king gave his life, and oppose with all our might the tendencies prevalent today to divest the Church of its authority and power to be the Body of Christ in the world; seeking to heal its wounds and strengthen its life and purpose, which is the sanctification of all men unto life eternal.

‘Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

A PRAYER OF FR PEARCE

O loving Father, I believe thou hast given me life so that I may know the joys of Heaven. Help me to love and serve and worship thee. Help me to love others, so that I may not lose the great reward of the life to come. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.