MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER
DAILY TO BE SAID AND USED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.
15. The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed Place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel; except it shall be otherwise determined by the Ordinary of the Place. And the Chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.
The direction given in the first clause of this rubric was introduced in 1559, in correction of the order of 1552, which had enabled the Minister to choose any place in which the people could best hear. It was retained in 1662, and in reading the clause with the second, it appears distinctly to point to the ancient use, when the accustomed place for the minister was within the chancel.
The direction that the Chancels shall remain as in times past, dates from 1552, and must therefore refer to arrangements before that time. It seems also definitely to refer to the retaining the screen, and the steps, as interpreted by the order of 1561. Hence no fixtures may be introduced, such as pews, monuments, &c., nor any alteration made in the furniture or ornaments of the Chancels, which will interfere with the convenience of the Minister and Clerks in the celebration of Holy Communion, or other offices of the Church.
16. And here is to be noted, that such Ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, at all Times of their Ministration, shall be retained, and be in use, as were in this Church of England, by the Authority of Parliament, in the Second Year of the Reign of King Edward the Sixth.
This paragraph of the rubric is essentially taken from the Act of Uniformity of 1559. In the ecclesiastical language of that day, the word 'ornaments' technically includes everything which is connected with the purposes of the consecrated building beyond the mere fabric of the building, and with the dress of the officiating Minister beyond his usual dress in secular life.
In the Act of 1559, the intention was to take as the basis of the Prayer-Book then authorized the Book of the fifth and sixth years of Edward VI. (1552); but to adopt the ornaments of another period, viz. of the second, not of the fifth year of Edward VI.[a]
The ornaments of the second year are those which were intended to be, and were actually, used under the Prayer-Book of 1549. Whatever question may arise about other ornaments, there can be no question about those prescribed by that Book, as well as those implied in it. As to those which were not prescribed by, or implied in, that book, they must be determined by the existing usage of the time, subject to such modifications as were implied by the Injunctions, or other authoritative documents, up to the year 1548.
The following ornaments are prescribed by the Book of 1549.