the spirit if not the letter of the law by attempting to rule rubrical matters by canon and doctrinal questions by the vote of a single session of the General Convention, and by depriving a Priest of the right of trial by his peers; and which, I believe, no Bishop will ever attempt to act under, or ever succeed in enforcing." 30 The prophecy of Bishop Doane was fulfilled to the letter. The unconstitutional character of the Canon came to be generally recognized, the acts of genuflection and elevation were not abated, and no legal proceedings were ever attempted by those who would fain have enforced the provisions of the Canon. After remaining a dead letter for thirty years, it was repealed by the General Convention of 1904. Thus was removed the only prohibitions touching the celebration of the Mass which have ever stood in the statute books of the American Church, and which curtailed the liberty we had inherited from the Church of England in matters of ceremonial.

IX. Of the Influence of the various ceremonial Uses in the compilation of the Prayer Book.

In proceeding, in the next place, to the consideration of what was the ceremonial practice of the Church of England before the Prayer Book was set forth, it will be well to remember that at the period of the reformation there was practically liturgical uniformity (which is compatible with diversity in minor ritual details) throughout all that part of Europe which was in communion with Rome. The Gallican liturgy had been set aside in the time of Pepin and Charlemagne, and

D

Bishop Doane, Annual Address, Diocesan Journal, 1875, p. 111.

the Roman liturgy, with some features borrowed from the suppressed Gallican liturgy,-notably the prayers between the Offertorium and the Secreta-was used almost everywhere.31

The various diocesan rites of England known by the names of Sarum, York, Bangor, Hereford, and Lincoln, were not in any sense distinct liturgies, but simply "Uses" of this composite Roman liturgy. Their differences were chiefly seen in their variable parts, in the ceremonial details of High Mass, and in their colour-sequences; but in their liturgical framework, in their general underlying ritual principles, and in their Canon they were one with the Uses of the continent. And to the ordinary observer little or no difference would be apparent between a Mass as said in the sixteenth century in England and one as said on the continent, or as said at the present day in the parochial churches of the Roman obedience.

Of the various diocesan rites which had been prevalent, it is contended by a few, that at the period of the reformation the Sarum was the only one Use throughout England, all the others having been set aside; that the Prayer Book is founded on the Sarum books, which were the only ones in use by the authority of the Church; and therefore that Use can be our only legitimate guide in all matters of ceremonial.

There can be no question whatever that a very great part of the Prayer Book is a translation, more or less free, of liturgical features which were common to all the English Uses. But it will be observed, that by the

31 For a very interesting treatment of the origin of the Roman and Gallican liturgies, and of their relation to one another, the reader is referred to the Abbe L'Duchesne's Origines du Culte Chrétien, Paris,

Sarum theory it is contended, that of all these English rites, the Sarum books alone were the basis for the revision of 1549. Now it is evident that this statement is not proved by quoting the mere dictum of modern writers. If it is true that the Prayer Book is a revision of the Use of Sarum, we must expect to find not only features which were common to all the Uses, but very many of those peculiarities which distinguished Sarum from the other rites. Accordingly we have been told that such peculiarities abound on every page. If this be so, then certainly we ought to find them in the Communion office. But it is just here that their absence is most conspicuous. What one thing in the text or rubrics of the Communion Service of 1549 can be regarded as a Sarum peculiarity, the author is at a loss to know. It has been said that the Collect for purity is found only in the Sarum rite, and that it is Sarum only in the connexion in which it occurs. The accuracy of the first part of this statement may be tested by opening a Roman missal where the prayer is directed to be said daily in the Preparatio ad Missam, and is the Collect for the votive mass, Ad postulandam gratiam Spiritus Sancti. How its position can be regarded as a Sarum peculiarity is not easy to see, since by the Sarum missal it was directed to be said in the sacristy or before the Priest came to the altar, but by the rubric of 1549 it was to be said "afore the midst of the altar." Then it is said that the counting of the Sundays after Trinity rather than after Pentecost is Sarum. But this was no more a peculiarity of Sarum than it was of some of the French and German missals, or of the Dominican missal at the present day, in which the Sundays are reckoned in the same way. It is asserted that 'the calendar

(i. e., of the English Book) is Sarum and Sarum only.' It is hard to understand how a list of Saints' Days, first inserted in the Prayer Book in 1561, to which some names were added in 1604 and 1662, can be evidence that the Prayer Book of 1549 was derived from the Sarum books. If this is a legitimate mode of arguing, then what is to be said to the fact that in 1552 the revisers of the second book of Common Prayer, in the reign of Edward VI., did away with the old English custom of the people going up to the altar to offer their alms, and, to use the words of the learned Canon Simmons, "sanctioned the adoption of the earlier and distinctively Roman practice of going about the seats to receive them?" And moreover, what is to be said to the fact that in 1662, when the manual acts were restored to the Prayer of Consecration, the example of the modern Roman missal was followed, which directs the Priest to take the bread at the words "he took bread," and to take the chalice at the words "he took the cup," instead of the old English missals, all of which agree in directing the Priest to take the bread at Qui pridie, etc., and the cup at Simili modo, etc.? But the calendar is not Sarum only. The presence of the names of Saint Evurtius (or Enurchus) and the Venerable Bede from the York calendar is sufficient to disprove this assertion. So much for alleged Sarum peculiarities in the Communion office.

On the other hand, there are clear and unmistakable evidences that Uses other than those of England exercised no small influence on the revision of 1549. How this came to pass, whether directly or indirectly, is not known; the fact, however, is unquestionable. For example, the saying of the Lord's Prayer before the

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Introit is not found in any of the English rites. It is directed, however, to be said in this very place by the ancient statutes of the Carthusians. After the Confession, "the Priest . . . with hands joined, inclining before the face of the altar, says the Lord's Prayer. Then he kisses the altar, and signs himself, and then going to the book he says, or listens to the Introit." Compare this with the rubric of 1549: "The Priest standing humbly afore the midst of the altar, shall say the Lord's Prayer with the Collect." "Then shall he say a Psalm appointed for the Introit." In all the English missals, as in the Rouen missal, the anthem at the beginning of Mass is called the Officium Missa; the name Introitus was confined to the rites on the continent. Yet the Prayer Book adopted the latter term.

The words of institution in the Prayer of Consecration agree neither with Scripture nor with the words. of institution in the old Canon; they are, however, very like those in the Mozarabic liturgy.

The order of the preparation of the people for Communion is utterly unlike anything that was in use in England. Curiously enough, however, it corresponds very closely with the order prescribed in the Agenda of the diocese of Paderborn. The copy from which the quotation, here given in the foot-note, is made is an edition of 1602, but it undoubtedly represents the ancient traditional use of that diocese. This order, like our own, consists of an Exhortation, then a general

22 Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit., t. i., p. 595. In a Liege missal the Lord's Prayer is directed to be said before the Introit in behalf of the dead: "Tunc accedens ad altare ipsum osculando et librum; deinde pro peccatis et negligentiis et fidelibus defunctis dicat, Pater noster. Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini qui fecit celum et terram, Sit nomen Domini benedictum ex hoc nunc et usque in Saculum. Sequitur introitus missae (Missale ad usum Ecclesiae Leodiensis, 1504.)