Ritual Conformity / Interpretations of the Rubrics of the Prayer-Book Agreed Upon by a Conference Held at All Saints, Margaret-street, 1880-1881

by Unknown

A COMMINATION,

OR DENOUNCING OF GOD'S ANGER AND JUDGEMENTS

AGAINST SINNERS,

With certain Prayers to be used on the First Day of Lent, and at other Times, as the Ordinary shall appoint.

280. After Morning Prayer, the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner, the Priest shall, in the Reading-Pew or Pulpit, say, Brethren, &c.

The 51st Psalm is directed to be said, not 'said or sung.' Singing, therefore, appears to be excluded, as it was, in the similar place in the old English Office, by the direction to say the Psalm sine nota.

281. And the people shall answer and say. Amen.

282. Then shall they all kneel upon their knees, and the Priest and Clerks kneeling (in the place where they are accustomed to say the Litany) shall say this Psalm. Have mercy upon me, &c.

283. Then shall the people say this that followeth, after the Minister. Turn Thou us, &c.

284. Then the Minister alone shall say, The Lord bless us, &c.

Printed by Parker and Co., Crown Yard, Oxford.

Notes:

[a] "The Act of Uniformity is to be construed by the same rules exactly as any act passed in the last session of Parliament. The clause in question, by which I mean the rubric in question (the Ornaments Rubric), is perfectly unambiguous in language, free from all difficulty as to construction. It therefore lets in no argument as to intention other than that which the words themselves import. There might be a seeming difficulty in fact, because it might not be known what vestments were in use by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth; but this difficulty has been removed. It is conceded in the report that the vestments, the use of which is now condemned, were in use by authority of Parliament in that year. Having that fact, you are bound to construe the rubric as if those vestments were specifically named in it, instead of being only referred to. If an act should be passed to-morrow that the uniform of the Guards should henceforth be such as was ordered for them by authority, and used by them in the 1st George I., you would first ascertain what that uniform was, and having ascertained it, you would not enquire into the changes which may have been made, many or few, with or without lawful authority, between the 1st George I. and the passing of the new act. All these, from that act specifying the earlier date, would have been made wholly immaterial. It would have seemed strange, I suppose, if a commanding officer, disobeying the statute, had said in his defence, 'There have been many changes since the reign of George I., and as to "retaining," we put a gloss on that, and thought it might mean only retaining to the Queen's use; so we have put the uniforms safely in store.' But I think it would have seemed more strange to punish and mulct him severely, if he had obeyed the law and put no gloss on plain words.

"This case stands on the same principle. The rubric, indeed, seems to me to imply with some clearness that, in the long interval between Edw. VI. and the 14th Car. II., there had been many changes; but it does not stay to specify them, or distinguish between what was mere evasion, and what was lawful. It quietly passes them all by, and goes back to the legalized usage of the second year of Edward VI. What had prevailed since, whether by an archbishop's gloss, by commissioners, or even statutes, whether, in short, legal or illegal, it makes quite immaterial." Remarks on some parts of the Report of the Judicial Committee in the case of Elphinstone v. Purchas, and on the course proper to be pursued by the Clergy in regard to it. A Letter to the Rev. Canon Liddon from the Right Hon. J. T. Coleridge. (1871.)

We gather from the Inventories and other authorities, that the word vestment generally included, besides the chasuble, the stole and maniple, and the albe with its amice and girdle.

[c] "To bow reverently at 'the name of Jesus' whenever it is mentioned in any of the Church's offices; to turn towards the East when the Gloria Patri and Creeds are rehearsing; and to make obeisance at coming into and going out of Church; and at going up to, and coming down from, the altar, are all ancient and devout usages, and which thousands of good people of our own Church practise at this day, and amongst them, if he deserves to be reckoned among them, T. W.'s good friend."—Michael Hewetson's Memorandums concerning the Consecration of the Church of Kildare, and the Ordination of his dear friend, Thomas Wilson [S. Peter's' day, 1686], with some Advices thereon. Quoted in Life of Bishop Wilson, edited by the Rev. John Keble. A.-C.L., Part I. cap. i. p. 22.

"Whereas the Church is the house of God, dedicated to his holy worship, and therefore ought to mind us both of the greatnesse and goodness of his Divine Majestie, certain it is that the acknowledgement thereof not onely inwardly in our hearts, but also outwardly with our bodies, must needs be pious in itself, profitable unto us, and edifying unto others. We therefore think it very meet and behovefull, and heartily commend it to all good and well-affected people members of this Church, that they be ready to tender unto the Lord the said acknowledgement, by doing reverence and obeisance both at their coming in and going out of the said churches, chancels, or chapels, according to the most ancient custome of the Primitive Church in the purest times, and of the Church also for many yeers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth."—The Canons of the Church of England, 1640, No. vii.

[d] "Verba Canonis rotunde dicantur, et distincte, nec ex festinatione retracta, nec ex diuturnitate nimis protracta."—Decree of Herbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a general synod at London, A.D. 1200: Spelman's Concilia, ii. p. 123; John Johnson's Canons, A.-C.L., vol. ii. p. 84.

[e] In most Prayer-Books printed in this century, the words 'and Banns of Matrimony published' have been omitted from this rubric; and a corresponding alteration has been made by the printers in the first rubric in the Marriage Service, under a mistaken idea of the effect of Stat. 26 George II. cap. 33, which contained the same clause as that quoted above from the Act of 4 George IV. c. 76.

Even supposing that the words of these Acts were irreconcilable with the rubric, they did not alter the rubric.

[f] The order of reception in the Clementine Liturgy is:—The Bishop, priests, deacons, sub-deacons, readers, singers, monastics, deaconesses, religious virgins and widows, children, all the people in order (apparently first men, and then women).

[g] The direction of St. Cyril of Jerusalem was to use the hands, making the left hand a throne for the right, and hollowing the palm of the right to receive the Body of Christ.

The fact of receiving in the hands is also noticed by Tertullian in blaming people for using for purposes which he considered unworthy the hands which they had held forth to receive God.

[h] There seems a disposition to reduce the minimum lower than that appointed in our Rubric. The Lower House of Convocation of Canterbury have recommended its reduction to two or three, and the testimony of Bishop Torry to the ancient usage of the Scottish Church is that one was considered sufficient.

Cosin's Works, A.-C.L. Edition, vol. v. p. 129.

[j] This is A.D. 1643, the date of the total abrogation of the Prayer-Book.

[k] A distinction must, however, be drawn between the natural juice freshly pressed from the grape which has sometimes been allowed as valid matter for the Sacrament in cases of necessity, and the compounds now sold as 'non-alcoholic' or 'unfermented' wines. The reason why the former may be allowed is because it is potentially wine, and so to speak a child-wine, and would become true wine, if given time. But the principle of wine has been killed in the latter cases, so that the artificial fluids in question not only are not wine, but never can become wine, and are therefore invalid matter. The statement that the Jews employ unfermented wine at the Passover, is contrary to fact. They could not have employed it in our Lord's time, because the process of arresting fermentation during so long an interval as that between the vintage and the Passover, was unknown until very lately; and the Passover cup is now naturally fermented grape wine, carefully watched from the grape to the bottle to provide against accidental admixture from without: while vinegar, itself the product of two processes of fermentation, is also used by them at the Passover.

[l] Note.—It is sometimes customary, with a view of scrupulously consuming the entire of the consecrated wine, to cleanse the chalice with a little wine previously to using water; and not to pour away any water thus used until it is absolutely certain that all the consecrated species has been consumed. In the rare cases where wine has been consecrated in the flagon, that vessel must be cleansed with the same care as the chalice.