12 



ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



The Bishop of Worcester sent a circular of ques- 

 tions to churchwardens inquiring, among other 

 things, whether the vicar used incense or wafer 

 bread ; whether any other books were used in the 

 offices of the church than the Book of Common 

 Prayer; whether the services were conducted 

 strictly in accordance with the Prayer Book, with- 

 out addition, diminution, or alteration ; whether wa- 

 ter was mixed with wine during the service; and 

 whether any additions or alterations had been made 

 in the ornaments of the church or in the fabric 

 itself since 1895, and if so, by whose authority. 



The Bishop of Winchester' requested his clergy to 

 give him the opportunity of inspecting all forms 

 and offices used in their churches in addition to 

 those prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, 

 saying that "in times of anxiety, whether reasonable 

 or unreasonable, our security seems to be in falling 

 back upon the definite terms of the prescribed rule 

 and system of our Church. The result must be to 

 strengthen our mutual confidence, to allay fears if 

 they are groundless, and to restrain irregularities 

 where such there are." 



Charge of the Archbishop of Canterbury. 

 The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his address to the 

 Diocesan Conference of Canterbury, said that he did 

 not think it worth while to deny that there were a 

 few men who did very much desire to carry the 

 Church of England back under the domination of 

 the Church of Rome. There were also some men, 

 probably quite as many, who would very much de- 

 sire to get rid of the present constitution of the 

 Church of England in such a way as to join with it 

 the nonconformist bodies on their own terms. But 

 to say that the great body of the clergy of the 

 Church of England had the smallest desire to sub- 

 mit themselves to the domination of the Church of 

 Rome he was certain was not the fact. The arch- 

 bishop acknowledged the existence of a great many 

 irregularities that had grown out of a good deal of 

 mistaken zeal, which it would be necessary that the 

 bishops generally should look to. A simple way to 

 settle the matter would be for the clergy, in com- 

 pliance with their ordination vows, to abandon all 

 services that did not find a place in the Prayer 

 Book. 



The archbishop delivered in October a series of 

 visitation charges, in the course of which he inter- 

 preted the doctrinal teachings of the Church on a 

 number of points. Concerning the sacraments, 

 having shown that the spiritual reception by the 

 communicant of the flesh and blood is taught, he 

 said, respecting the question of the real presence, 

 that the Church certainly teaches Hooker's doctrine 

 that the presence should be looked for in the receiv- 

 ers of the consecrated elements, but that it " nowhere 

 forbids the further doctrine that there is a real pres- 

 ence in some way attached to the elements at the 

 time of consecration," the Supreme Court of Appeal 

 in matters ecclesiastical, he asserted, having de- 

 clared in the case of Mr. Hennet that this is open to 

 all to I.elieve if they think fit. The Church con- 

 demned id,. Unman doctrine of transul.staiitiation, 

 but permitted t lie teaching of the doctrine of Luther, 

 or consultant iation. As to objects of worship, the 

 Church allowed none except Qod himself. The 

 ecclesiastical courts had decided that prayer for 

 the dead was not forbidden in the New Testament 

 or by the Chun-li of England, but the Church did 

 not authorize the introduction of such prayers into 

 public worship, except in the most cautious and 

 guarded manner. The archbishop condemned 

 habitual and compulsory confession, and explained 

 the law of the Church of England on the subject to 

 be that confession should be always free and volun- 

 tary. While the Church tolerated a large diversity 

 of opinion, it was strict in the enforcement of unity 



in ceremonial. " It is the rule of strict ceremonial," 

 the archbishop continued,^" that makes it unlawful 

 by the Church's law to elevate the consecrated ele- 

 ments in the communion office ; to reserve them after 

 the office is over ; to carry them out of the church for 

 any purpose whatever ; to use incense ceremonially 

 by carrying it in procession, or by censing persons 

 or things; to mix water with wine ceremonially 

 by doing it visibly during the office ; to introduce 

 additional prayers ; to introduce psalms or hymns 

 or anthems at any point during the services, except 

 where there is special order permitting it or where 

 the service is for any reason illegitimately inter- 

 rupted." The lawful authority who could authorize 

 any modifications was the bishop. Coercive juris- 

 diction was exercised through the courts, but the 

 bishop had very little power of that kind. The one 

 power he possessed was the power not to enforce, 

 but to empower other people to abstain from en- 

 forcing. The archbishop deprecated recourse to 

 the courts, because it presented the Church to the 

 world in an aspect of strife. 



National Protestant Congress. The ninth 

 annual Congress in connection with the National 

 Protestant League met at Folkestone, Oct. 17. The 

 chairman, Sir C. Robert Leighton, in his opening 

 address, spoke of the plain statements of the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury in his visitation addresses of 

 the previous week as having, he hoped, not para- 

 lyzed, but electrified the Protestant people of Eng- 

 land. The primate, he said, voicing almost the 

 entire episcopate of the English Church, had de- 

 clared that it was not unlawful to hold the Lutheran 

 doctrine of consubstantiation, or to teach it in the 

 Church of England. They knew now why Dr. 

 Temple had, with the so-called wish of keeping the 

 peace, vetoed them when they had endeavored to 

 put down unlawful things in the Church of Eng- 

 land, and they knew now why he had put off 

 their appeals to him in their difficulties. It was 

 useless to go on memorializing bishops, because 

 they had practically avowed through their mouth- 

 piece, the archbishops, that they were of the sacer- 

 dotal party. The duty of Protestants was to join 

 together more firmly and unitedly than ever, and 

 make a crusade against what they believed to be 

 doctrine contrary to the Church of England, con- 

 trary to the teaching of the early infant Church, 

 and dishonoring to the Lord. Besides addresses 

 on a number of general topics relating to Christian- 

 ity, discussions were had on subjects bearing upon 

 the existing crisis, such as " The Encroachments of 

 Priestcraft (a) in the Church and State ; (b) in the 

 Family and Society"; "The Imperial Protestant 

 Federation"; "National Council of Evangelical 

 Free Churches in its Relation to Protestantism " ; 

 " The Jesuits : (a) Their Tactics and Influence ; 

 (b) Notorious Secret Societies in the Church of Eng- 

 land." 



Resumption of the Protests. Mr. Kensitgave 

 notice, Aug. 3, that he had no intention of making 

 any further protests till the first Sunday in Novem- 

 ber, by which time he hoped the bishops might have 

 interfered. If not, he hoped to arrange for a thou- 

 sand simultaneous protests in different parts of 

 England, without, however, any disturbance. In 

 i lie meantime he organized a body of young men as 

 " Wycliffe preachers " to co-operate with him and 

 assist him. A meeting preparatory to the resumption 

 of the protests was held in London, Oct. 28, amid 

 some demonstrations of opposition. Mr. Kensit ad- 

 dressed this meeting respecting his movement, and 

 said that the protests he had been compelled to make 

 in the house of God against ritualism were distaste- 

 ful tqjhim,but he believed that God had directed him 

 to make them, and had used them .to work up the 

 nation to the importance of the movement. He 



