10 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



"Under these circumstances, the Church has a 

 right to expect that the bishops should suppress all 

 unlawful practices at once, and direct the removal 

 <>f stone 'altars' or other illegal furniture intro- 

 duced without a faculty, and the restoration of the 

 Ten Commandments to their accustomed place; 

 should refuse to const-crate any church until illegal 

 ornaiiit'iits have ln-t-n removed; and should at once 

 suppress all variations in the communion service 

 from the language and rubrical directions of the 

 ^ of Common Prayer, and that no office book 

 be employed in any service which has not the au- 

 thority of the entire Church of England. For 

 these 'purposes the bishops have already ample 

 powers. The bishops have already power to refuse 

 to license imy law-breaking clergyman to a curacy, 

 to test the Romanizing spirit of candidates for the 

 ministry, ami to refuse institution to lawbreakers 

 who will not conform in future to the requirements 

 of the law. The paternal authority of the bishops 

 would enable them in the vast majority of cases to 

 put an end to the irregularities complained of, but 

 where that may not suffice they can direct a moni- 

 tion to be served, disobedience to which would lead 

 in due course to the suspension, or it may be depri- 

 vation, of the contumacious wrongdoer. . Your pe- 

 titioner respectfully submits that the long neglect 

 of the ordinaries themselves has been the cause of 

 the confusion and disorder which now exist. 



"Your petitioner humbly desires that your hon- 

 orable house \yill take immediate steps for the re- 

 pression of these evils and abuses." 



An appeal issued by the Church Association to 

 the people of England in the beginning of July 

 called attention to the influence of secret societies 

 as the source of the existing troubles and of dangers 

 from the teaching of the doctrines of the mass, and 

 of sacerdotalism, which were described in forcible 

 language. 



The subject formed the principal topic discussed 

 at the annual meeting of the Church Association, 

 May 2, when the presiding officer. Capt. A. W. 

 Cobhain, in his opening address spoke of the situa- 

 tion in its relation to the movement represented by 

 the association as indicating an approaching crisis. 

 " The apathy of Protestants had been rudely shaken 

 by the archbishop's reply to the Pope, by the at- 

 tempt to upset the educational settlement of 1870, 

 by the proposal of an Irish Roman Catholic uni- 

 versity, and by practices called idolations against 

 which Mr. Kensit had been moved to utter open 

 protests during service. The report of the council 

 mentioned as the only effective remedy against the 

 advance of sacerdotalism the organization of a 

 Protestant party in the House of Commons, and 

 they were now endeavoring to enroll 100 Protestant 

 electors in every constituency, who would pledge 

 their votes to the side which it might be decided to 

 support. They had undertaken the cost of Mr. 

 Kensit's appeal against his recent conviction (based 

 on his proteM i. and the cost of his application for 

 removing a tabernacle an "ornament^' from the 

 Lord's table in St. Ethelburga's Church. A memo- 

 rial relating to St. Ethelburga's signed by 15,000 

 Protestant Churchmen had that morning been pre- 

 sented to the Mishop of London. The decision of 

 the council to support Mr. Kensit was approved by 

 the association, ami it was decided to raise 2,000 

 for the purpose. Mr. K'.tisil attended the meet ing 

 and was received with cheers. Me declared that he 

 was going all over the country in his crusade 

 against idolatry in the Church of England, and 

 that he believed a glorious reaction in favor of 

 Protestantism was setting in ; but it was a time for 

 deeds, not words. 



At a large meeting of ministers of the Established 

 Church, held in London in May, a memorandum 



was adopted setting forth certain principles ad- 

 herence to which was regarded as essential to 

 enable the Church to maintain its position and 

 secure healthy conditions for effective progress. It 

 recognized that a chief difficulty hitherto to be con- 

 tended with had been in securing those Catholic 

 privileges which, while they obviously and certainly 

 belonged to Churchmen, had been overlaid and for- 

 gotten in past years of apathy and neglect. Indi- 

 viduals endeavoring to vindicate their rights in 

 this respect had been moved by a desire to be 

 united with other parts of the Church in witness 

 to Catholic doctrine, but their action was limited 

 to securing what seemed fairly within the limits 

 of the authoritative sanctions and traditions of the 

 English Church. On the other hand difficulties 

 had arisen out of a return to certain practices 

 which were explicitly or by implication abolished 

 at the Reformation, or out of a resort to certain 

 foreign developments which never had any foot- 

 ing in the English Church. The signers of the 

 memorandum wished to express their view that 

 developments of this kind could not be introduced 

 except by or under the sanction of authority, sub- 

 mission to which was a first principle of Catholi- 

 cism. The immediate authority with which Eng- 

 lish Churchmen had to do was that of the English 

 Church, not that of the Roman or the Gallican or 

 any other Church. It followed that nothing could 

 have valid ecclesiastical authority for English 

 Churchmen which the English Church had never 

 received or authorized, or which the English Church 

 had definitely repudiated, whether explicitly or by 

 implication, 'though it might at one time have 

 had the authority of that Church. Authority ex- 

 pressed itself through the bishops jointly and 

 severally. The Declaration of Assent in the use of 

 the Book of Common Prayer was interpreted in 

 this memorandum as a pledge to use the cere- 

 monials therein prescribed "as the positive and 

 sufficient rule and order of the ministrations of the 

 Church for which they are provided as opposed to 

 modifications of them, whether by change, addition, 

 or division, except in so far as such modifications 

 may be enjoined or allowed by lawful authority." 



Action of the Church Union. The annual 

 meeting of the English Church Union was held 

 June 16. Viscount Halifax presiding. The presi- 

 dent, in his address, asserted the right of the Church 

 to say or sing mass with the old ritual, except in 

 such particulars as had been forbidden, denounced 

 those who would interfere with it or disturb the 

 exercise of it, and said he was quite certain that 

 lights, vestments, and the mixed chalice would not 

 be given up ; but services not directly prescribed 

 by the Prayer Book, such as the Three Hours, the 

 Story of the Cross, and the Veneration of the 

 Cross, must be given up if the bishop of the dio- 

 cese desired. Obedience to authority was of more 

 importance than any particular form of devotion 

 or liturgical enrichment. No one, however, who 

 respected the authority of the Church could object 

 to those services as superstitious or sensuous. It 

 was no more superstitious to bow to an altar than 

 to the throne, to say " with my body I thee wor- 

 ship" to a wafer than to the emblem of our salva- 

 tion. It was impossible to obey episcopal admoni- 

 tions founded on a denial of the truth, such as a 

 condemnation of bowing to the altar because it 

 witnessed a belief in the real presence of the body 

 and blood of Christ under the forms of bread and 

 wine, or a proposal to renounce the Athanasian 

 Creed because it insisted on the necessity of holding 

 to the Catholic faith for salvation. It was neces- 

 sary that present wants should lie met by the 

 sanction of additional services and collects. If 

 individual priests had stretched the limits of their 



