CHAPTER IX.
Parliament, which had been adjourned in July, reassembled in November. Charles, on the 20th of that month, attired in crimson velvet, the crown on his head, the sceptre in his hand, sat upon the throne of his fathers, attended by a good number of Earls and Barons, occupying their benches. It was a proud day for the Church of England; for then, the first time after a lapse of twenty years, the Spiritual Fathers, in their scarlet robes, as Peers of the realm, filled their ancient seats; and His Majesty, it seems, came to the House partly in honour of their re-instatement. "My Lords and Gentlemen of the House of Commons," he remarked; "I know the visit I make you this day is not necessary—is not of course—yet, if there were no more in it, it would not be strange that I come to see what you and I have so long desired to see, the Lords, Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons of England met together."
1661.
The greater part of the speech from the Throne related to the crying debts which every day he heard; but before the King ended he said: "Those [things] which concern matters of religion, I confess to you, are too hard for me, and therefore I do commend them to your care and deliberation which can best provide for them."[274] He was no polemic like his grandfather; but he had himself, in the autumn of 1660, undertaken to manage the Church question; a year's experience, however, had taught him a little wisdom, and no wonder that the subject which had been more than Charles V. could manage in Germany, had proved much too hard for Charles II. in England.
The Lord Chancellor delivered a message to the House of Peers on the 19th of December, to the effect that, besides the apprehensions and fears then generally prevalent, His Majesty had received alarming letters from several parts of the kingdom; and also that from intercepted letters, it appeared there were many discontented persons troubling the nation's peace; in consequence of which he sought the assistance of Parliament.[275] The contents of some of these letters we know. The object of informers, and of the people who rifled the post, was to make it appear that Nonconformists were disaffected, that Dissent was treason; and that measures ought to be adopted for the utter extinction of the growing evil. Yet the accusers, in many cases, were forced to acknowledge, that the accused were quiet when let alone. The letters prove that the nation felt dissatisfied,[276] that multitudes murmured against the Government, that Republican officers were unsettled, and that some were watching for a good opportunity to take up arms. A few fanatics entertained rebellious designs; but that Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, or Quakers, either generally or in large numbers, were covering political plots under a veil of religious worship—the point sought to be established—is an unfounded surmise, indeed a pure invention.
PRETENDED PLOTS.
An example of the method employed to criminate innocent persons may be adduced, and it will furnish an illustration of some of the evidence to which Clarendon alluded.
William Kiffin was a rich London merchant, and a famous Baptist preacher. Whilst held in honour by his fellow-citizens for commercial integrity, and by his fellow-religionists for fervent zeal, he was the object of relentless persecution to the party now in the ascendant, and his steps were tracked by informers with lynx-eyed vigilance, and wolfish ferocity. When other methods had failed to bring him within the reach of the law, one of the most abominable schemes which cunning and malignity ever contrived, was adopted with a view to compass his ruin.
A letter was posted at Taunton bearing the signature of Colonel Basset of that town, and directed to one Nathaniel Crabb, Silk-thrower, in London, "residing at his house in Gravel Lane." The letter is preserved in the State Paper Office. It is written in a spirit of fanaticism, expressing a desire for the destruction of the sons and daughters of Belial, and declaring that there were thousands of "dear saints" who were ready to "lay down their lives to do the work of God." "We do desire you," it is said, "to be careful to get into your hands powder and arms; as many as you can between this and Easter, and we will do what we can to perfect the work." The name of Kiffin is introduced, together with the names of Jesse and Griffin, as conspirators in the design. At first sight the letter appears genuine. Nothing is indicated to the contrary in the Calendar of State Papers. When I read it at first, it startled me; yet this letter is a fabrication. An autobiography, written by Kiffin, is at hand to expose the fraud. He was summoned before the Council. The letter was read to him. He replied that he knew nothing of the matters to which it referred; and afterwards, before the Chief Justice, by whom he was examined, he proceeded to show, from certain anachronisms in the document, that it must be a forgery. His Lordship expressed his satisfaction with Kiffin's defence, assuring him that the author of the letter, if discovered, should be punished.[277]
1661.
A Committee of Lords and Commons having been appointed to report respecting plots, Mr. Waller, on the re-assembling of Parliament, after the Christmas recess, stated that not less than 160 of the old Army officers were suspected of being implicated in treasonable schemes. Some of the regicides, he alleged, were being entertained in France, Holland, and Germany; arms were being bought by them to accomplish these designs; many pretended Quakers were riding about at night to the terror of peaceable subjects, and seditious preachers were plying their mischievous trade.[278] This report, in some parts obviously absurd, was followed by no confirmatory evidence, although further information was promised.
CONVOCATION.
The day after the re-assembling of Parliament, in the month of November, the Houses of Convocation resumed their deliberations. To facilitate the despatch of business in reference to the Prayer Book, the Convocation of the province of York agreed to unite with the Convocation of the province of Canterbury, by means of proxies, binding themselves to submit to the decisions thus obtained.[279] So earnest was the Northern Archbishop, that he wrote to the Prolocutor of his Lower House to send up proxies by the next post, and told the Registrar of his diocese, "if we have not all from you by the end of next week we are lost."[280] Several clergymen came from the North to town, to act on behalf of their brethren. The two provinces thus co-operating, the business of revising the Prayer Book rapidly proceeded. Upon the 10th of October, the King had written to the Archbishop of Canterbury, directing His Grace, with the other Bishops and clergy, to discharge that duty;[281] and, probably, before Convocation met in November, the Bishops had begun to prepare for the task, although there were differences of opinion amongst them; for, whilst some pressed for alterations such as might "silence scruples and satisfy claims," others were for adopting the Prayer Book as it stood.
1661.
Before describing the alterations which were now made, it is proper to give, at least, a slight sketch of the history of the volume. The Middle Ages had no Act of Uniformity. There were several rituals, called Uses, of York, Hereford, Exeter, Lincoln, and other dioceses. These Uses, which did not materially differ from each other, gave place after the eleventh century, especially in the South of England, to that of Sarum; Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, having about the year 1085, bestowed great pains upon the revision of the ecclesiastical offices in his Church. The Missal and Breviary contained in Osmund's revision of the English mediæval formularies, constitute the basis and, indeed, the substance of the Book of Common Prayer.[282] The first reformed Liturgy for the use of the Protestant Church in England was set forth under Edward VI., in the year 1549. A second, which showed a further advance on the side of the Reformation, appeared in 1552. A primer, or book of private prayer, containing the catechism, with collects and other forms of secret devotions, was published in 1553. Elizabeth's Book of Common Prayer belongs to the year 1559; and afterwards, at different times, came particular forms of devotion, prepared for particular seasons and circumstances. The Prayer Book of 1559 underwent some alterations at the commencement of the reign of James I., after the Hampton Court Conference, but they were very slight, and were simply called Explanations. The Book prepared in the reign of Elizabeth, thus altered, was that which the Convocation of 1661–2 had to revise.
CONVOCATION.
Perhaps I shall best succeed in giving with brevity some idea of the origin of the Common Prayer, and other offices of the Church of England, if I take the Morning Service, the Communion, and the Order for performing Baptism, as they were found in the Book used before the revision under Charles II., and point out, in a general way, the sources from which those forms were derived.
Morning prayer is in the main drawn from the Matins, Lauds, and Prime of the Sarum Breviary. That which may be called the introduction—extending from the opening sentence to the end of the Absolution—was a new feature in the Prayer Book of 1552. The materials of it may be found in mediæval Lent services, the old Office for the Visitation of the Sick, and certain portions of a homily by Pope Leo. Some have supposed that some hints for this introduction were gathered from the reformed Strasburg Liturgy, published by Pollanus (or Pullain).[283] The idea embodied was that of substituting public confession, awakened by the reading of Holy Scripture, for private confession made to a priest; and, on the same principle, the using of a public form of absolution for a secret one. The object was to make that congregational and common which had previously been individual or monastic.
1661.
The second portion or main substance of the Morning Service, from the Lord's Prayer to the three collects, is derived obviously from different sources. The Versicles are taken from the Sarum Use, and other old offices. The version of the Psalter is that of Cranmer's Bible, 1539. The Lessons were substituted for the numerous, but brief Scripture sections of the Breviary, the Apocrypha being occasionally used. The Te Deum is an old canticle of Gallic origin;[284] the Benedicite is the Song of the Three Children, a Greek addition to the third chapter of Daniel; the Apostles' Creed is taken from the Anglo-Saxon office of Prime; and, as to the other creeds, we may add, that the Nicene was sung at Mass, after the Gallican Use; the Athanasian was sung in the Matin offices.[285]
The Litany may be regarded as a distinct service. It is a very old form of devotion, differing somewhat in different countries. The Invocation of Saints was removed by the Reformers; and in the compilation of its numerous sentences, along with the Sarum ritual, the Consultation of Hermann, the reforming Archbishop of Cologne (1543), was extensively employed.[286] The collects and short prayers come from various sources; many of them from the Sacramentary of Gregory, and some from that of Gelasius; others were drawn from ancient models, but much altered; several were new. The few Occasional Prayers in the books of 1552 and 1559 were, like those added in the revision of 1661–2, new compositions arising out of existing circumstances.
CONVOCATION.
The Communion Service, or Liturgy proper, was derived from the Missal, expurgated of course. The second Prayer Book of Edward, in that respect, was a decided improvement on the first. It omits even an implied oblation of the consecrated elements, and simply expresses the oblation of the worshippers—the difference of oblation being one grand difference between the Romish and Protestant Eucharist. The second Book also omits the commemoration of "the most blessed Virgin Mary," with the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, contained in the first. Other alterations were made of a decidedly Protestant character in the time of Edward. The Prayer Book of 1559 indicates certain retrograde changes. The omission of the thoroughly Protestant declaration respecting the Lord's Supper in the Book of 1552, is very significant. It may be added, however, that Bishops Grindal and Horn, when writing to Bullinger and Gaulter, assured them that the declaration "continued to be most diligently declared, published and impressed upon the people."[287]
The Baptismal Service was founded upon formularies, priestly and pontificial, in the Sarum offices. Certain idle ceremonies were omitted, but the order of making catechumens, the blessing of the font, and the form of baptizing, as constituted in the mediæval Church, were adopted by the Reformers. There are also in the service plain traces of the influence of Bucer and Melancthon, through Hermann's Consultation. The first prayer was originally composed by Luther. The thanksgiving after the rite is a much stronger expression of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, than the ancient Gallic form of words from which it seems to be derived.[288]
1661.
These imperfect notices show how carefully the Reformers retained what they considered most precious in the ancient records of Christian devotion; how reverently they looked on words which had been vehicles for ages, of the service of song and the offering of prayer. This conservative element—connected with a prudential policy lest offence should be given to semi-Protestants, when it could by any means be avoided—appears to many an admirer of the Liturgy in the present day to have been a snare, betraying the compilers into the retention of some things which marred the beauty of their work, and really caused it to narrow "the Communion of Saints" in the kingdom of England. Others think far otherwise. For my own part I would say that as the sources whence the Book was compiled are so numerous and so ancient, belonging to Christendom in the remotest times—as there is in it so little that is really original, so little that belongs to the Reformed Episcopal Church in England, any more than to other Churches constrained by conscience to separate from Rome—the bulk of what the Book contains, including all that is most beautiful and noble, like hymns which, by whomsoever written, are sung in Churches of every name, ought to be regarded as the rightful inheritance of any who believe in the essential unity of Christ's Catholic Church, and can sympathize in the devotions of a Chrysostom, a Hilary, and an Ambrose.
CONVOCATION.
Such was the Book which Convocation had now to examine and revise, in connection with necessities which had been felt ever since the Reformation, and which had greatly increased during the seventeenth century.
The Upper House appointed on the 21st of November, a Committee consisting of the Bishops of Durham, Ely, Oxford, Rochester, Sarum, Worcester, Lincoln, and Gloucester, most of whom had been Commissioners at the Savoy, to meet in the palace of the Bishop of Ely in Hatton Garden, at five o'clock in the afternoon of every day, except Sunday, until their work was finished. But when they had taken their walk as the evening drew in, they really found little to do. Their work had been anticipated; materials were ready to hand, The Prayer Book had been carefully studied and revised for a long time, by eminent Anglicans. MS. notes existed of great value, made or collected by Bishop Overall, Bishop Andrewes, and Bishop Cosin.[289] Those by the last, as we shall see, were largely used.
That the Bishops when they met had much of what they needed provided for them may be concluded from the fact that, on the 23rd of November, only the second day after the appointment of the Committee, a portion of the corrected copy was delivered to the Prolocutor of the Lower House.[290] Previous labours had almost superseded a discharge of the duties laid upon the newly-appointed Committee.[291] From day to day progress was made, until, within a month, the work was completed.
1661.
Forms of prayer which had been adopted by Convocation in the summer, were now inserted in the volume. So also were the General Thanksgiving, drawn up by Dr. Reynolds, and the Prayer for all sorts and conditions of men, composed by Dr. Gunning.[292] New collects were introduced, with occasional prayers in the visitation of the sick.[293] About 600 alterations were made in the body of the volume. Some of these were in accordance with suggestions made by the Puritans at the Savoy Conference, but they did not amount to important concessions. Others of them were adapted to render the Prayer Book more distasteful to that party than before. The word Priest was substituted for the word Minister in the Absolution; instead of Bishops, Pastors, and Ministers, were introduced Bishops, Priests, and Deacons; and the words rebellion and schism were added to the petition against sedition; but many of the alterations are unconnected with any theological or ecclesiastical controversy. There is a volume amongst the Tennison MSS., Lambeth, which contains The Differences of the Old Common Prayer Book and the New, being a copy of the edition, printed in 1663, with the variations written upon the margins and upon the paper interleaved; at the beginning, are the words, "This is the publique Liturgy revised and rectified. Ao 1662." The notes which had been collected or composed by Cosin seem to have been largely used throughout the revision.[294]
CONVOCATION.
The Bishops came to an unanimous vote in favour of a form of prayer before and after sermon; thus cutting off all liberty to introduce extempore devotion, and extinguishing one of the last hopes of the Puritan party: but this design was afterwards dropped "upon prudential reasons."[295] Pell,[296] assisted by Sancroft, revised the Calendar, and with the Calendar was connected the arrangement of daily lessons. Should the Apocrypha be read as before in the Church Service? The Puritans deemed it a profanation to read uninspired and, in some respects, superstitious books, as if they formed part of Holy Scripture. A severe battle seems to have been fought on this vital question. One can imagine how feelings would be excited to the highest pitch, how the question would be canvassed in different circles, how people would watch for tidings of the debate, how the History of Susanna and the Elders would be like a standard wrestled for in the tug of war; and very probable is Andrew Marvell's story of a jolly doctor, coming out with a face full of joy, shouting "We have carried it for Bel and the Dragon!"[297]
1661.
We learn that during the later Sessions of the Convocation, Herbert Thorndike "constantly attended and had a hand more than ordinary in the business"—a piece of information which rests upon the authority of Sancroft. Both Sancroft and his friend were in favour of such alterations as have been sometimes called Laudian, and they were anxious (especially the latter of these Divines) to proceed further in that direction. Thorndike, there is reason to believe, regarded as imperfections the omission of all intercession for departed souls, and of the prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the elements used at the communion.[298] Perhaps some others sympathized with these eminent persons in this respect, but they found their tendencies checked by the decided Protestantism of the larger portion of the clergy, and by a regard to expediency in some who had no decided convictions on the subject.
Upon the 19th of December—a day on which complaints were made to the House of Lords to the effect that many disaffected persons, both on political and ecclesiastical grounds, existed in the realm—the Upper House committed the preparing of a form of subscription to Cosin and Henchman, Bishops of Durham and Salisbury, who, in the discharge of this duty, were to receive assistance from Drs. Chaworth and Burrett. This small Committee met the same afternoon, when they came to an agreement respecting the mode of expressing approval of the revised formularies of the Church of England.[299]
CONVOCATION.
Convocation has been charged with indecent haste in the management of this whole business. I do not wonder at such a charge, since a similar accusation had been brought against the Presbyterians at the Savoy, especially in reference to Baxter's Prayer Book: and so far as the adoption of alterations, proposed to the Houses by individuals or committees, is concerned, there is ground for the complaint. Six hundred alterations could never have been properly considered by two large bodies of men in the short time actually devoted to them; and looking at the matter as one so much affecting their own consciences, and the consciences of all clergymen in future time, we must regard so hasty a decision on the part of Convocation as unjustifiable. But, as it regards preparing the alterations, I see no ground on which to charge with want of care the persons who performed that duty.[300]
There does not appear to have been any discussion in Convocation touching the Thirty-nine Articles. No alterations in them were proposed by the Anglican party, although the Articles have always been considered as presenting the more thoroughly Protestant or Evangelical side of the Church formularies.
The two Houses of Convocation adopted and subscribed the Book of Common Prayer on the 20th of December. As the Act of Uniformity had not then been passed, as this subscription was intended to prepare for it, and as no Act of Parliament existed at the time requiring subscription, it may be instructive and useful to notice the grounds on which this subscription took place.
1661.
This fact is curious that, although the practice of subscribing to a creed began so early as the Council of Nicæa, neither the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, nor the clergy of the Greek Church have ever been required, or are now required, by any of their laws, so to express their belief as to doctrine and their resolution as to practice. The enforcement of subscription upon Protestant ministers commenced soon after the Reformation; and, in some cases, the extent of belief which it was intended to cover seems wide indeed; for in the Duchy of Brunswick, Duke Julius required from clergymen, from professors, and from magistrates, "a subscription to all and everything contained in the Confession of Augsburg, in the apology for the Confession, in the Smalcaldic Articles, in all the works of Luther, and in all the works of Chemnitz."[301] The Articles of the Church of England were not subscribed generally until the twelfth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when subscription was ordered for the special purpose of checking the admission of Papists into the English Church, and also the admission of those who had taken orders in the foreign Reformed Churches. The assent required was confined to those Articles "which only concern the Confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments."[302] The Earl of Leicester introduced to the University of Oxford, in 1581, subscription to the Articles, without any precise form of words to be required from all undergraduates upon matriculation, and from all who took degrees. The extending of the act of subscription to the entire Liturgy was a step not taken until 1603, when, by the canons of Convocation of that year, this form of assent came to be required of all the clergy. Hence it appears to have been in compliance with a canon law enacted by their predecessors, and not in compliance with any statute law, that the members of Convocation, in the year 1661, signed the declaration of assent and consent to the contents of the Prayer Book.[303]
CONVOCATION.
After the Revision had been completed, a copy of the Bill then pending in Parliament was read and examined in the Upper House of Convocation upon the 29th of January. Upon the 18th of February, Dr. Barwick was chosen Prolocutor in the room of Dr. Ferne, promoted to the see of Chester. The Bishops deputed their brethren of St. Asaph, Carlisle, and Chester, on the 5th of March, with the concurrence of the Lower House, to revise alterations in the Book during its progress through Parliament—a resolution which seems to have had a prospective reference to alterations anticipated as possible, but which do not appear to have been ever attempted; for it is known, as will be hereafter seen, that none were made by the Commons, and it may be inferred that none were made by the Lords.[304] Upon the 8th of March Convocation directed Sancroft, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to superintend the printing of the Book; and Mr. Scattergood and Mr. Dillingham to correct the proofs. Upon the 22nd of the same month the subject of a special form for the consecration of churches came under discussion.[305]
1661.
Convocation accomplished no alterations in the canons, though it took up the subject repeatedly; nor did it determine anything with regard to Church discipline. The whole of this question had remained in an unsettled state ever since the Reformation. In the reign of Henry VIII. (1534), a Commission had been appointed by statute to revise the ecclesiastical laws; and enactments respecting them nearly up to the time of the death of that monarch were repealed. In the reign of Edward VI. (1551), a renewed Commission for the same purpose was statutably instituted; and the labours of the Commissioners issued in the well-known book, entitled Reformatio legum Ecclesiasticarum, a code strongly imbued with the intolerance of the age.[306] But it never received the Royal sanction; it never became legally binding. Another abortive attempt was made in Convocation (1603), when James I. occupied the throne; and canons were passed declaring the doctrine of passive obedience, and denouncing a series of opposite opinions.[307] Happily for the credit of the Church and the peace of the realm, this, like the previous scheme of ecclesiastical law, failed to obtain constitutional sanction. The last endeavour at making canons (1640) hastened the crisis of the Civil Wars. There was little then to encourage Convocation to proceed with the business of Church discipline, and, therefore, notwithstanding the earnestness of Thorndike in promoting it, the subject was allowed to drop.[308]
BISHOPS.
The month of December, which saw the revisionary labours of Convocation completed, also witnessed within the walls of Westminster Abbey two remarkable solemnities connected with the revival of Episcopacy. Upon the 12th of December, Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrew's, Fairfull, Archbishop of Glasgow, Leighton, Bishop of Dunblaine, and Hamilton, Bishop of Galloway, were consecrated by the Bishops of London and Worcester;[309] and upon the 20th, the day when the Prayer Book was being subscribed by the members of the two Houses of Convocation, the Bishop of Hereford, brother to the Duke of Albemarle, was buried,—a silver mitre, with his Episcopal robes, being borne by the Herald before the hearse, which was followed by the Duke, by several noblemen, and by all the Bishops.[310]
1661.
The Bishops, this year, had other business besides that of Convocation to occupy time, and to create anxiety. Prior to the passing of the Act of Uniformity, their dioceses could not but be in a state of confusion. Many clergymen who were disaffected to the restored system and its Episcopal administrators, retained incumbencies, and gave considerable trouble to the ecclesiastical superiors. It was as if, after the suppression of a long-continued and successful mutiny, and the re-instatement of old officers in command, a number of soldiers in the ranks, or of sailors on board ship, should still remain opposed to the colonel or the captain.[311]