the Articles (XXIV., XXV., the affirmative clause of XX., and a por tion of XXVII) have been removed since 1688 by relaxation and exemption; and the difficulties arising from the development of theological schools with widely divergent tendencies, within the bosom of the Church of England itself, have been met by liberal decisions allowing a great latitude of interpretation.

During the reign of William III., in 1689, a thorough revision of the Book of Common Prayer was undertaken and actually made in the interest of an agreement with Protestant Dissenters, by an able royal commission of ten bishops and twenty divines, including the well-known names of Stillingfleet, Patrick, Tillotson, Sharp, Hall, Beveridge, and Tenison. But the revision has never been acted upon, and was superseded by the toleration granted to Dissenters. The alterations did not extend to the Articles directly, but embraced some doctrinal features in the liturgical services—namely, the change of the word Priest to ‘Presbyter' or 'Minister;' Sunday to 'Lord's Day;' the omission of the Apocryphal Lessons in the calendar of Saints' days, for which chapters from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were substituted, a concession to conscientious scruples against kneeling in receiving the sacrament, and an addition to the rubric before the Athanasian Creed, stating that 'the condemning clauses are to be understood as relating only to those who obstinately deny the substance of the Christian faith.'1

§ 82. AMERICAN REVISION OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, A.D. 1801.

WILLIAM WHITE, D.D. (first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of Pennsylvania; d. 1836): Memoirs of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. New York, 1820; 3d ed. by De Costa, 1880.

WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, D.D. (Secretary of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States): A Hand-book of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, giving its History and Constitution, 1785-1874. New York, 1874. The same: Journals of the General Convention, etc., 1785-1835. Claremont, N. H., 1874. Also SAMUEL WILBERFORCE (late Bishop of Oxford): A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America (1844); CASWALL: History of the American Church (2d ed. 1851); and PROCTER: A History of the Book of Common Prayer, pp. 162 sqq. (11th ed. 1874).

For the colonial history, comp. the Historical Collections relating to the American Colonial Church, ed. by Dr. PERRY. Hartford, 1871 sqq. 3 vols. 4to.

The members of the Church of England in the American Colonies, from the first settlement of Virginia (1607) till after the War of the

1 A revision of the Book of Common Prayer was adopted by the National Church Assembly, July, 1927, the vote being 34 to 4 bishops, 255 to 37 clergymen, 230 to 92 laymen, but rejected by the House of Commons, Dec., 1927, by a vote of 238 to 205. A second revision was rejected by the Commons, June 14, 1928, by an increased majority, 266 to 220. The revision seemed to permit the reservation of the sacrament and introduced after the consecration of the elements the epiclesis of the Greek Church, stating the change of the bread and wine. The Revised Book is issued by the S. P. C. K.-Ed.

Revolution, belonged to the diocese of the Bishop of London, who never visited the country, and could exercise but an imperfect supervision. Several attempts were made, by the friends of the Church, to establish colonial bishoprics, but failed.

The separation from the crown of England necessitated an independent organization, which assumed the title of THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The first steps towards such an organization were taken by a meeting of clergy and laity in New Brunswick, New Jersey, May 11, 1784, and by another and larger one, held in New York, Oct. 6 and 7, of the same year. The first General Convention, consisting of sixteen clerical and twenty-six lay deputies, assembled in Philadelphia, Sept. 27 and 28, 1785, Dr. White presiding, adopted a constitution and such changes in the Book of Common Prayer as were deemed necessary to conform it 'to the American Revolution and the Constitutions of the respective States,' and petitioned the English hierarchy to consecrate such bishops for the independent Church as may be elected by the separate dioceses. The revised provisional Liturgy was rather hastily prepared and published, 1786. It is called the 'Proposed Book.' It contains, besides many necessary ritual changes and improvements, Twenty Articles of Religion, based upon the Thirty-nine Articles, but differing widely from them, being a mutilation rather than an improvement. The alterations and omissions were made in the interest of an unchurchly latitudinarianism which then prevailed. The Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, which Art. VIII. of the English series acknowledges, were entirely omitted in Art. IV. of the new series; the Apostles' Creed was retained, but without the clause 'He descended into hell.'

2

1 Shortly before the Convention, Bishop Seabury, of Connecticut, had received consecration at Aberdeen from three Bishops of Scotland (Nov. 14, 1784), but he did not attend the Convention, and was opposed from High-Church principles to the introduction of lay representation and the limitation of the power of the episcopate.

2 It is sometimes also called 'Bishop White's Praver-Book,' who was the chairman of the committee of revision, Dr. William Smith, of Maryland, and Dr. Wharton, of Delaware, being the other members. Smith is made chiefly responsible for the changes by Perry, p. 23. The book was printed in Philadelphia, 1786, in London, 1789, and again (with omission of the amended Articles of Religion) in New York, Dec., 1873, for provisional use in the new Reformed Episcopal Church,' which has since adopted a new revision.

3 Given by Perry, Hand-book, pp. 34-39, from the original MSS. in the Convention archives. He calls the Proposed Book a 'hasty, crude, and unsatisfactory compilation, which failed utterly to establish itself in the American Church' (p. 42).

The book failed to give general satisfaction at home or abroad. The English Archbishops demanded the restoration of the three Ecumenical Creeds in their integrity.1

The General Convention held at Wilmington, Del., Oct. 11, 1786, complied with this request so far as the Nicene Creed and the discretionary use of the clause of the descent in the Apostles' Creed were concerned. The omission of the Athanasian Creed was adhered to,' and subsequently acquiesced in by the English Bishops. The obstacle of the oath of allegiance required in England having been removed by act of Parliament, the Rev. Drs. White, of Pennsylvania, and Provoost, of New York, received the long-sought 'Apostolical succession,' in the chapel of Lambeth Palace, Feb. 4, 1787. At one time this result seemed so doubtful that steps were taken to secure ordination, with a broken succession, from the Lutheran bishops of Denmark, and the consent of the Danish government had actually been obtained, when the difficulties in England were removed.

In the Special Convention of Philadelphia, June, 1799 (the General Convention having been prevented in the preceding year by an epidemic), a new revision of the Articles of Religion, reduced to seventeen, was considered, but not finally acted upon by the House of Deputies, and was printed as an Appendix to the Journal of that House. But it gave no satisfaction, and shared the same fate with the previous draft of twenty Articles.

Finally, the General Convention held at Trenton, New Jersey, Sept. S-12, 1801, settled the question by adopting the Thirty-nine Articles in the form which they have since retained in the American Episcopal Church, and are incorporated in its editions of the Prayer-Book. The only doctrinal difference is the omission of the Athanasian Creed from

See their letter in Perry, pp. 50-55.

2 In the first edition of the new Prayer-Book, 1790, the objectionable clause was printed italics, and put in parentheses. But the General Convention of 1792 left it discretionary to use it, or to omit it, or to substitute for it the words,' He went into the place of departed spirits,' as being equivalent to the words in the Creed.

3

Bishop Seabury was very zealous for the Athanasian Creed; and in the Convention of 1789 the House of Bishops agreed to its permissory use, but the House of Deputies would not allow of the Creed in any shape.' Bishop White favored a compromise-viz., to leave it in the Prayer-Book as a doctrinal document, but not to read it in public worship. See his Memoirs, pp. 149, 150, and a letter of White, quoted by Perry, p. 76.

Perry, pp. 90-95.

5 See Vol. III. pp. 477 sqq., where they are given in full.

Art. VIII.; the remaining changes are political, and adapted to the separation of Church and State. Otherwise even the obsolete diction' is retained. The following is the action of this Convention:1

'Resolutions of the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention, in the city of Trenton, the 12th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1801, respecting the Articles of Religion.

"The Articles of Religion are hereby ordered to be set forth with the following directions, to be observed in all future editions of the same; that is to say

"The following to be the title, viz. :

***Articles of Religion, as established by the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in Convention, on the 12th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1801."

'The Articles to stand as in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, with the following alterations and omissions, viz. :

'In the 8th Article, the word "three" in the title, and the words "three-Athanasius' creed" in the Article, to be omitted, and the Article to read thus:

"ART. VIII. OF THE CREEDS.

"The Nicene Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture."

'Under the title "Article 21," the following note to be inserted, namely,

"The 21st of the former Articles is omitted, because it is partly of a local and civil nature, and is provided for, as to the remaining parts of it, in other Articles." 'The 35th Article to be inserted with the following note, namely,

"This Article is received in this Church, so far as it declares the Books of Homilies to be în explication of Christian doctrine, and instructive in piety and morals. But all references to the constitution and laws of England are considered as inapplicable to the circumstances of this Church: which also suspends the order for the reading of said homilies in churches until a revision of them may conveniently be made, for the clearing of them, as well from obsolete words and phrases, as from the local references.'

'The 36th Article, entitled "Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers," to read thus:

"The Book of Consecration of Bishops, and ordering of Priests and Deacons, as set forth by the General Convention of this Church in 1792, doth contain all things necessary to such consecration and ordering: neither hath it any thing that, of itself, is superstitious and ungodly. And, therefore, whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to said form, we decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully consecrated and ordered." 'The 37th Article to be omitted, and the following substituted in its place:

"ART. XXXVII. OF THE POWER OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE. ""The power of the civil magistrate extendeth to all men, as well Clergy as Laity, in all things temporal; but hath no authority in things purely spiritual. And we hold it to be the duty of all men who are professors of the gospel, to pay respectful obedience to the civil authority, regularly and legitimately constituted.'

'ADOPTED BY THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS.

WILLIAM WHITE, D.D., PRESIDING BISHOP.

'ADOPTED BY THE HOUSE OF CLERICAL AND LAY DEPUTIES.

On the nature and aim of this action, Bishop White remarks:1

"The object kept in view, in all the consultations held, and the determinations formed, was the perpetuating of the Episcopal Church, on the ground of the general principles which she had inherited from the Church of England; and of not departing from them, except so far as either local circumstances required, or some very important cause rendered proper. To those acquainted with the system of the Church of England, it must be evident that the object here stated was accomplished on the ratification of the Articles.'

The only change in the Prayer-Book which has a doctrinal bearing, besides the omission of the Athanasian Creed, is the insertion of the Prayer of Oblation and Invocation from the Scotch (and the First Edwardine) Prayer-Book, through the influence of Bishop Seabury, who had been consecrated in the Scotch Episcopal Church.

§ 83. THE CATECHISMS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. A.D. 1549 AND

1662.

Literature.

The Church Catechism is contained in all the English and American editions of the Book of Common Prayer, between the baptismal and the confirmation services, and is printed in this work with the American emendations, Vol. III. pp. 517 sqq. The authentic text of the final revision of 1662 is in the corrected copy of the Black-Letter Prayer-Book, which was attached to the Act of Uniformity, and has been republished in fac-simile, Lond. 1871. (It was supposed to be lost, when in 1867 it was discovereť in the Library of the House of Lords.)

ARCHIBALD JOHN STEPHENS: The Book of Common Prayer, with notes legal and historical. Lond. 1854 fol. III. pp. 1449-1477.

FRANCIS PROOTER: A History of the Book of Common Prayer. 11th ed. Lond. 1874, ch. v. sect. i (pp. 397 sqq.).

See other works on the Anglican Liturgy, noticed by Procter, p. viii.

EARLIER CATECHISMS.

The English Church followed the example of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches on the Continent in providing for regular catechetical instruction. English versions and expositions of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, with some prayers, were known before the Reformation, and constituted the 'Prymer,' which is commonly mentioned in the fifteenth century as a well-known book of private devotion. In 1545 Henry VIII. set forth a Primer which was to be taught, learned, and read, and none other to be used

1 Memoirs, p. 33.

The earliest known copy, belonging to the latter part of the 14th century, has been published by Maskel in Monumenta ritualia Ecclesiæ Anglicance, Vol. II. It contains Matins and Hours of our Lady; Evensong and Compline; the seven Penitential Psalms; the Psalmi graduales (Psa. CXX.-CXXXIV.); the Litany; Placebo (Vespers); Dirge (the office for the departed); the Psalms of Commendation; Pater noster; Ave Maria; Creed; Ten Commandments; the seven deadly sins. See Procter, p. 15.