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.