ministers, if any be there present (that they may help the chief minister), and after to the people in their hands kneeling. And when he delivereth the bread, he shall say:—

"Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on Him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving.' "And the minister that delivereth the cup shall say :

"Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful.""

The "Declaration" added at the end of the Communion office is as follows:

"Although no order can be so perfectly devised, but it may be of some, either for their ignorance and infirmity, or else of malice and obstinacy, misconstrued, depraved, and interpreted in a wrong part and yet, because brotherly charity willeth that, so much as conveniently may be, offences should be taken away: therefore we, willing to do the same; whereas it is ordained in the Book of Common Prayer, in the administration of the Lord's Supper, that the communicants kneeling should receive the Holy Communion, which thing being well meant for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ given unto the worthy receiver, and to avoid the profanation and disorder which about the Holy Communion might else ensue; lest yet the same kneeling might be thought or taken otherwise, we do declare that it is not meant thereby that any adoration is done, or ought to be done, either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or to any real and essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood. For as concerning the sacramental bread and wine, they remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored, for that were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians; and as concerning the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ, they are in heaven, and not here; for it is against the truth of Christ's true natural body to be in more places than in one at one time."*

The "Declaration " has all the appearance of having come from the hand of Cranmer. Its spirit and style are the same as those * Vide "The Two Liturgies, with other Documents set forth by authority in the reign of King Edward the Sixth." Parker Society, 1844. The editor adds in a note that in one of two copies of the Grafton editions of 1552, used in printing the Parker Society's edition, the extra leaf was pasted in after the copy was bound, while several copies are without it.

of the preface of "Ceremonies; why some be abolished and some retained," prefixed for the first time to the same Prayer-book. If his conjecture be sustained, the suggestion at once occurs, that as Cranmer was not at any meeting of Council in October, 1552, later than that of the 11th, and could not therefore have framed. the declaration at the Council Board, either on the 20th or the 27th; it had been written by him at Ford, and communicated to the Council at one or other of these latter meetings. But if it was communicated to the Council on the 20th of October, and discussed at that meeting, it is certain that no action arose out of the deliberations of that day-in the direction of giving effect to it-for the final order to insert "the declaration" was not agreed to till the 27th, although if a majority could have been obtained for it on the 20th, there was the strongest reason for hastening the order for its insertion in the copies of the new Prayer-book, the publication of which had now been arrested for several weeks. If, therefore, the Council saw their way to adopt and publish "the declaration" on the 27th, it is reasonable to conclude that this decision could only have been due to some new element having been imported into the question.

The "Confession" of Knox and his coadjutors, presented on that day, was, we are convinced, this new element. When the Council resumed the subject on that day, the question before them. lay between Knox's proposal to abolish kneeling as urged anew in the "Confession," and the Archbishop's plan to retain the practice and the new Rubric enjoining it, but to add the new and supplementary Declaration. The compromise prevailed; but, apparently, there would not have been so much as a compromise obtained if the "Confession" had not been thrown into the scale at the very last moment. Knox's promptitude and energy therefore, in preparing this last contribution to the controversy, had not been thrown away. His last blow had the effect of overcoming the resistance to all further change which a majority of the Council had hitherto maintained.

It would have been interesting to have known with certainty and in detail what part in these proceedings of the Council was taken by the young King. That he signed the Declaration is expressly stated, which he would not have consented to do if he had not in his conscience approved of it; but neither would he at the earliest stage of the discussion have concurred in sending an instruction

to Cranmer to reconsider the question, and to stay in the meanwhile the progress of the press, if he had not been shaken in his previous opinion by the earnest preaching of Knox. In truth, there would be no great hazard in surmising that the proposal, which Knox had broached, found favour with no one at the Council-Table more than with the King himself. In Cecil's "Memorandum" for the meeting of the 20th of October, there occurs the following suggestive entry :

"A Brief of the Dispute at Windsor, for the King."

This "Dispute at Windsor" was, no doubt, the same “dispute among the Bishops" to which Utenhovius refers as occasioned by Knox's Sermon at Court. Apparently it had not taken place in the presence of the King, but he had heard of it, and had expressed his pleasure that a "Brief" of the arguments used on both sides should be drawn up for his perusal. That Brief had been prepared, perhaps by Cecil himself, for the approval of Council, before it was handed to Edward. He must have time to weigh the arguments which had been used on both sides. Hence, probably the delay of the Council in coming to a decision on that day. But at the meeting of the 27th, the same day when Knox's "Confession" was put in, the King was prepared to declare his mature opinion, and that opinion plainly did not side with those of the Bishops who had argued at Windsor against all change in the Prayer-book as about to issue to the Church. Up to that meeting there is nothing to indicate that more than a minority of the Council had been convinced of the necessity of annexing the "Declaration." What, then, were the new elements introduced into the case at that meeting? We already know that one of these was "the Confession of Knox." We may now add, with some degree of probability, upon the evidence of Cecil's "Memorandum," that a second element was contributed to the solution arrived at by the now ripened conviction of the young King. It was in all likelihood the combined pressure of the King's influence, and of the seasonable support to it which his zealous chaplain brought into the field at the last moment, which at length prevailed with the Council to accept the "Declaration.”

We do not of course claim for this representation of the young King's part in this important business more than the weight of a

probable conjecture, for it may well seem precarious to hang upon the peg of Cecil's "Memorandum," a more confident conclusion. But, on the other hand, it is not to be forgotten that the forwardness of Edward's zeal in the work of Church-Reformation was much in advance of that of most of his councillors. His piety was sincere and deep, and his allegiance to the Word of the King of kings profound. There was no man at the Council-Table more likely than he to feel the solemn force of the appeals which Knox had made in support of his views, both in the pulpit and by the pen, to the Institution and the example of Christ. But of course, in his yet tender age, he could not prudently disregard the advice and the wishes of his wisest councillors; and as Knox had failed to convince a majority of the Council of the duty of abolishing kneeling in the Sacrament, though possibly he may have convinced the King himself, he was content to obtain their assent to the explanatory "Declaration on Kneeling," to which at the Council-Table he put his royal hand.*

The unjust reflections to which Knox had been subjected for his energetic intervention in this weighty business produced no diminution whatever in the esteem entertained for him by his Royal Master. Knox kept a high place in Edward's favour and grace to the end. He continued to preach at Court in 1552, till the middle of December. He preached again in his turn in the following spring, and the repeated offers of preferment which he had during the next six months either came directly from the King, or must have received his sanction. And on Knox's side, this excellent young Prince's name was never named by him in his writings, to the end of his life, without the warmest demonstrations of admiration and love.

The discussions of the Council upon the new Rubric of kneeling in the Prayer-book, could not fail to have some effect upon the important question of the new Articles submitted by Cranmer and the other reforming bishops. Nothing is known of the reports sent in by those of the royal chaplains and other learned men who did not join with Knox and one or more who drew up the Confession on kneeling. Several of the chaplains, we know, sent in

*For John-A-Lasco's testimony to the advanced ecclesiastical views of the King, vide Extracts from his writings, at the end of the chapter.

such reports of their judgments, but no record of them has been preserved. Nor is anything further known of Knox's judgment than what is contained in the Confession, which refers to his "judgment touching the reformation of other ceremonies contained in the foresaid Book." This judgment, when sent in to the Council, must evidently have been directed against several other points of the Prayer-book besides the Rubric on kneeling, and must therefore have pressed for the omission or modification of the 38th Article, which expressed an entire approbation not only of the doctrine of the Book, but also of all the rites and ceremonies which it had either continued or added. Whether any similar suggestion had come from any of the other chaplains, it is of course impossible to say, but the issue of the whole matter was very remarkable :—

"AT WESTMINSTER, the 20th November, 1552.

"A letter was ordered to be to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the Articles heretofore drawn and delivered by him to the King's Majesty, which being since that time considered by certain of his Highness's chaplains and others, are in some part altered; and therefore returned to him to be considered, so as, after the perfecting of them, order may be given for the putting the same in due execution."*

On the 23rd Nov. the amended Articles reached Cranmer at Ford, and on the following day he returned them to the Council, with a letter, which has been preserved :

"After my very humble recommendations unto your good Lordships, I have sent unto the same the Book of Articles which yesterday I received from your Lordships. I have sent also a schedule inclosed, declaring briefly my mind upon the said Book, beseeching your Lordships to be means unto the King's Majesty, that all the bishops may have authority from him to cause all their preachers, archdeacons, deans, prebendaries, parsons, vicars, curates, with all their clergy, to subscribe to the said Articles. And then I trust that such a concord and quietness in religion

* Council Book, vol. iii. p. 645.