“Ro. Heath.”
An act of parliament, passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II., leaves to these canons their full canonical authority, whilst it provides that nothing contained in that statute shall give them the force of an act of parliament.
The acts of this convocation were unanimously confirmed by the synod of York.—Cardwell, vol. ii. p. 593, vol. i. p. 380. Wilkins, Conc. vol. iv. p. 538.
These canons, though passed in convocation, are not in force for the following reason: In 1639 a parliamentary writ was directed to the bishops to summon these clergy to parliament ad consentiendum, &c., and the convocation writ to the archbishops ad tractand. et consentiend. The parliament met on the 13th of April, 1640, and was dissolved on the 15th of May following. Now though the convocation, sitting by virtue of the first writ directed to the bishops, must fall by the dissolution of that parliament, yet the lawyers held that they might sit till dissolved by like authority. But this being a nice point, a commission was granted about a week after the dissolution of the parliament for the convocation to sit, which commission the king sent to them by Sir Harry Vane, his principal Secretary of State, and by virtue thereof they were turned into a provincial synod. The chief of the clergy then assembled desired the king to consult all the judges of England on this matter, which was done: and upon debating it in the presence of his council, they asserted under their hands the power of convocation in making canons. Upon this the convocation sat a whole month, and composed a Book of Canons, which was approved by the king by the advice of his privy-council, and confirmed under the broad seal. The objection against the Canons was that they were not made pursuant to the statute 25 Hen. VIII., because they were made in a convocation, sitting by the king’s writ to the archbishops, after the parliament was dissolved, though there is nothing in the statute which relates to their sitting in time of parliament only.
After the Restoration, when an act was passed to restore the bishops to their ordinary jurisdiction, a proviso was made that the act should not confirm the Canons of 1640. This clause makes void the royal confirmation. Hence we may conclude that canons should be made in a convocation, the parliament sitting; that being so made, they are to be confirmed by the sovereign; and that without such confirmation they do not bind the laity, much less any order or rule made by a bishop alone, where there is neither custom nor canon for it.—Burn.
Canon is used in the service of the Roman Church to signify that part of the communion service, or the mass, which follows immediately after the Sanctus and Hosanna; corresponding to that part of our service which begins at the prayer, “We do not presume,” &c. It is so called as being the fixed rule of the Liturgy, which is never altered. Properly speaking, the canon ends just before the Lord’s Prayer, which is recited aloud; the canon being said in a low voice. In the First Book of King Edward VI., the word is used in this sense, viz. in the Visitation of the Sick, after the Gospel, the service proceeds as follows:
“The Preface. The Lord be with you.
Answer. And with thy spirit.
¶ Lift up your hearts, &c.
Unto the end of the canon.”