proper courts and officers sentences of spiritual censure remains unimpaired, and though her disciplinary powers over the laity are but seldom exercised, yet circumstances may easily render a revival of them an absolute necessity. There is probably no desire on the part of any one that the legal consequences of excommunication should be revived, it was largely owing to the disastrous confusion between things spiritual and secular that excommunication fell into such discredit, but the restoration of something corresponding to the godly discipline of the primitive Church is, as we are reminded by the Commination Service every year, a thing that is "much to be wished."

ARTICLE XXXIV

THE last paragraph of this Article ("Every particular or national Church," etc.) was added in 1563, as was also the single word "times" in the first sentence. With 1 "Traditiones Ecclesiastica," 1553 and 1563.

these exceptions, it has remained unaltered since its first issue in 1553. Its language may be traced to a considerable extent to the fifth of the Thirteen Articles of 1538, in which we find the following paragraphs :—

"Traditiones vero, et ritus, atque ceremoniæ, quæ vel ad decorem vel ordinem vel disciplinam Ecclesiæ ab hominibus sunt institutæ, non omnino necesse est ut eædem sint ubique aut prorsus similes. Hoc enim et variæ fuere, et variari possunt pro regionum et morum diversitate, ubi decus, ordo, et utilitas Ecclesiæ videbuntur postulare:

"Hæ enim et variæ fuere, et variari possunt pro regionum et morum diversitate, ubi decus decensque ordo principibus rectoribusque regionum videbuntur postulare; ita tamen ut nihil varietur aut instituatur contra verbum Dei manifestum."1

The clause added in 1563 seems to have been taken from a Latin series of twenty-four Articles, apparently drawn up by Parker in 1559; but "whether, from motives of prudence, or from inability to gain the sanction of the Crown," not circulated among the clergy. In this document we are told that "quævis ecclesia particularis authoritatem instituendi, mutandi et abrogandi ceremonias et ritus ecclesiasticos habet, modo ad decorem, ordinem et ædificationem fiat."s

The main object of this Article is, as against the Romanists, to assert the right of the Church of England to make such changes as were carried out in her “traditions and ceremonies" in the sixteenth century; and a further object is to insist upon the duty of loyalty on the part of all members of the Church to those traditions

1 See Hardwick, p. 264. We may be thankful that the characteristically Erastian reference to "princes and the rulers of countries" was not adopted in the Anglican formulary.

2 Hardwick, p. 118.

See Strype, Annals, i. p. 216.

and ceremonies which were ordained and approved by common authority. This was rendered necessary, not only by the entire rejection of all authority by the Anabaptists, but by the way in which some among the English clergy, who were very far from sympathising doctrinally with these fanatics, were prepared to take the law into their own hands, and discard such ceremonies as they disapproved of.1 These men were the ecclesiastical ancestors of the "Nonconformists" of Elizabeth's reign-men who would not secede, and who denounced the "separatists," but claimed to set at defiance the laws and regulations of the Church in which they ministered 2 There are three principal positions maintained in the Article

1. There is no need for traditions and ceremonies to be everywhere alike.

2. Those persons are deserving of censure who break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which are ordained by common authority.

3. Every particular or national Church is competent to arrange her own ceremonies and rites.

Of these the first and third statements have been already considered in connection with Article XX., and it will be sufficient to refer the reader to what was there said. Nor does the second appear to require any lengthy proof. The position of the Church of England with regard to "ceremonies, why some be abolished and some

1 of these men Hooper was the leader. His objection to the Episcopal habit, and the difficulty about his consecration in consequence, is well known (see Dixon, vol. iii. p. 213 seq.); and it must be owned that considerable encouragement was given to this party by Ridley's utterly illegal onslaught upon "altars" in 1550. See Dixon, vol. iii. p. 200 seq.

2 In the Lower House of Convocation a vigorous attempt was made in 1563 to have the terms of this Article softened in the interests of the Puritans, and the attempt only narrowly escaped being successful. See Strype, Annals, i. p. 335 seq.

retained," is clearly stated in the section with this heading at the beginning of the Book of Common Prayer (dating from 1549). In this we read that "although the keeping or omitting of a ceremony, in itself considered, is but a small thing, yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a common order and discipline is no small offence before God. Let all things be done among you, saith Saint Paul, in a seemly and due order: the appointment of the which order pertaineth not to private men; therefore no man ought to take in hand, nor presume to appoint or alter any publick or common order in Christ's Church, except he be lawfully called and authorised thereunto."

It is obvious that unless such a position as this is conceded, nothing can result except confusion and disorder. No better example of this can be given than the extraordinary state of things which existed in Elizabeth's reign before the vigorous efforts of Parker, and subsequently of Whitgift, had succeeded in enforcing a certain degree of order and conformity to law. Naturally this

1 See the contemporary Paper prepared for Cecil in 1564, now among the Lansdowne MSS., vol. viii. art. 7: "Varietees in ye service, and ye administracion used."

"Service and Prayrs. Some say ye service and pray in ye chauncell, others in yo body of yo church, some say ye same in a seate made in ye church; some in ye Pulpitt, wth yr faces to ye people. "Some kepe precysly ye order of ye booke, othrs intermeddle Psal. in

meter.

"Some say wth a surpless, others wthout a surplesse.

“Table.—The Table standeth in yo body of yo church in some places, in others hit standeth in ye chauncell.

"In some places the Table standeth Alterlyke distant from ye walle a yarde, in some others in ye middest of ye chauncell north and south.

"In some places the Table ys joyned, in others hit standeth uppon Trestells.

"In some ye Table hath a carpett, in others hit hath none. "Administration of ye Co[mmvn]ion.-Some wth surpless and copes, some with surpless alone, others with none.