The ceremonial innovations complained of were more numerous than the doctrinal. They included turning the holy table altar-wise; bowing to the east; the use of candlesticks upon the altar, so called; the construction of a canopy over it, with curtains on each side; the display of crucifixes and images upon the parafront or altar-cloth; reading some parts of the morning service at the table, when the communion is not celebrated; the employment of credence tables; the introduction of an offertory distinct from giving alms to the poor; and "singing the 'Te Deum' in prose, after a cathedral church way, in divers parochial churches where the people have no skill in such music." The last of the practices here enumerated might seem to occasion censure only on the ground of unfitness and want of taste, such as High Churchmen would disapprove; but all the other particulars in the paper, of which we have given only specimens, demonstrate that Puritan, if not Presbyterian pens were employed in drawing it up. Another proof of this circumstance is found in the reference to "standing up at the hymns in the church, and always at 'Gloria Patri.'" The finding fault with that shews the extreme length to which the Puritans went in their objections; and it is curious to observe, that standing up to sing, which was in the seventeenth century complained of as an innovation upon the reformed discipline of the Church, is now an almost universal practice in all communities of English Christians.[157] A memorandum follows—which might have proceeded from the Episcopal portion of the Committee—to the effect that two sermons should be preached in all cathedral and collegiate churches on Sundays and holydays, and that there should be at least one lecture a week; but, again, Puritan influence appears in the expression of a desire that music should be arranged with less curiosity, and that no "ditties" should be "framed by private men."
1641, March.
In reference to the Prayer Book, suggestions to the number of thirty-five occur, of which the following may be mentioned: expunging the names of some departed saints from the calendar; the disuse of apocryphal lessons; omitting the Benedicite; the making some discreet rubric to take away the scandal of signing the cross in baptism, or the abolition of that sign altogether; the enlargement of the Catechism; and certain changes in the Marriage[158] and Burial Services, and also in that for the Visitation of the Sick,—changes of a kind such as have been commonly proposed by those who advocate a revision of the Prayer Book.[159]
A proposal for reforming the Episcopate which was volunteered by Williams, and was submitted by him on his own responsibility, without success, to the House of Lords,[160] does not belong to the schemes of the Committee. It went no further than to propose that bishops should preach every Sunday under penalty for default; that none should be justices of the peace except the Dean of Westminster; and that prelates should have twelve assistants besides Deans and Chapters. Four of these assistants were to be appointed by the King, four by the Lords, and four by the Commons; and in the case of a see being vacant, they were to present three able divines to His Majesty, who was to nominate one of them to the Episcopal chair; no Dean or Prebendary was to absent himself from his cathedral above sixty days.
Lords' Committee on Innovations.
Other plans were drawn up by different persons with a view to the reconciliation of opposite parties, and there were moderate men who believed that, "but for some hot spirits who would abate nothing of episcopal power and profit," a compromise might have been effected. Perhaps it might; yet supposing some likelihood of peace through mutual concession at an earlier period, it admits of a question whether any possibility of it remained, now that the pent-up animosities of many years had burst out like the fires of a volcano. Theologians of a spirit like that of Ussher and others might have discovered grounds of union in spite of different views on some subjects; but a large majority of the divines who formed the two parties which then divided the Church, had reached conclusions irreconcilably opposed to each other. At all events, the semi-Puritan scheme of accommodation came to nothing. By the middle of May, the Committee had broken up, and when the reader reflects upon the crisis which affairs had reached, he will not wonder that the members abandoned the project in despair.
1641, April.
The Committee of the Commons appointed for considering the Ministers' Remonstrance of the 27th of January, had not been idle. They had made reports and submitted questions for discussion. The House consequently passed resolutions for reforming pluralities, removing bishops from the Peerage and Privy Council, and for excluding all clergymen from the commission of the peace. Orders were given to frame Bills accordingly.[161]
One of these Bills, which was introduced on the 9th of March, provided that no minister should have more than one living; that if he absented himself from his cure for forty days, he should forfeit his preferment; and that no member of the University should hold a benefice ten miles distant from his College, without living in the parish.[162]
Debates respecting Bishops.