ANGLICAN CHURCHES. 



17 



the two Convocations would be appointed to 

 consider petitions on the Public Worship Regu- 

 lation Act and the relation of Church and state. 

 Resolutions were offered by the Dean, of Man- 

 chester, " that, inasmuch as all priests having 

 care of souls, in any diocese, have received 

 their commission from the bishop, as chief 

 pastor, it is an invasion of the rights of the 

 Church that any priest should be inhibited a 

 sacris by other than spiritual authority," and 

 that the present court of ecclesiastical appeal 

 "does not command that confidence of the 

 laity and clergy which is necessary to the well- 

 being of the Church of these realms." The 

 subject-matter of these resolutions was re- 

 ferred to the joint committee of the two Con- 

 vocations about to be appointed. A resolu- 

 tion was adopted approving generally of the 

 Burials bill which the Government had sub- 

 mitted to Parliament. On this subject the 

 principle was affirmed that the bishops should 

 be the judges as to the fitness of monumental 

 inscriptions in churchyards. 



The Convocation of Canterbury met at West- 

 minster May 24th. The Burials bill, then before 

 Parliament, the representation of the laity, and 

 the increase of the Episcopate, were the princi- 

 pal subjects of discussion. The petition of six- 

 teen pears and a number of other laymen re- 

 specting the unsatisfactory state of ecclesiastical 

 legislation, which had been previously present- 

 ed to the Convocation of York, was also offered 

 in the Lower House of this body. A resolution 

 by the Archdeacon of Gloucester, "that no leg- 

 islation on the rubrics can be safely entered 

 upon until some safeguards are devised against 

 the danger lest changes affecting the worship of 

 the Church should become law by the action of 

 Parliament alone without the consent of Convo- 

 cation," was adopted. A resolution was adopt- 

 ed, as an articulus cleri, in support of the meas- 

 ure proposed in Parliament by the Government 

 for dealing with the burials question. This 

 resolution contained a clause praying the bish- 

 ops to "oppose permission being given to any 

 person other than a minister of the Church of 

 England to officiate at burials in our church- 

 yards, being assured that such a change in the 

 law will be regarded as a grievance by the 

 general body of churchmen, and will have a 

 tendency to unsettle the present relations be- 

 tween Church and state." A resolution was 

 adopted, recommending the formation of ad- 

 ditional Episcopal sees in Northumberland, 

 Yorkshire, Cheshire, Nottingham and Derby, 

 Birmingham, the Tower Hamlets, and South- 

 wark. A resolution was adopted, proposing the 

 formation of a house of laymen, with whom 

 Convocation should confer, and whose ap- 

 proval of the measures passed by the ecclesi- 

 astical houses should be requisite before any 

 propositions were submitted to the Crown or 

 Parliament for legal sanction. The Upper 

 House discussed the report of the Committee 

 on Clergy Discipline, which gave the heads of 

 & bill for the amendment of the present law on 

 VOL. xvii. 2 A 



that subject. In the course of the debate the 

 difficulty which existed in obtaining the prose- 

 cution and punishment of derelict clergymen 

 for immorality was contrasted with the ease 

 of the process in case of ritualistic grievances. 

 The Convocation met again on the 3d of July. 

 The principal subject of discussion in the Up- 

 per House was the book for the Confessional, 

 called "The Priest in Absolution," to which 

 public attention had been directed by debates 

 in Parliament. A resolution was adopted, call- 

 ing the attention of the Lower House to the 

 declaration on the subject of Confession, which 

 had been adopted by the Upper House in July, 

 1873, and asking its immediate consideration 

 of the same. (The text of this declaration is 

 given in the ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1873.) 

 The declaration was concurred in by the Low- 

 er House, by a vote of 62 to 6. On the sub- 

 ject of the book itself, the following resolution 

 was unanimously adopted by the Upper House : 



1. That this House holds the Society of the Holy 

 Cross responsible for the preparation and dissemina- 

 tion of the book called " The Priest in Absolution." 



2. That this House, having considered the first res- 

 olution appended to the statement of the Society of 

 the Holy Cross presented to this House on Friday, 

 July 6, 1877, viz. : " That, under these considera- 

 tions, the Society of the Holy Cross, while distinctly 

 repudiating the unfair criticisms which have been 

 passed on the book called ' The Priest in Absolu- 

 tion,' and without intending to imply any condemna- 

 tion of it, yet in deference to the desire expressed 

 by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the representa- 

 tives of the Society, resolve that no further copies 

 of it be supplied," is of opinion that the Society lias 

 neither repudiated nor effectively withdrawn from 

 circulation the abovesaid work. 



3. That this House expresses its strongest con- 

 demnation of any doctrine or practice of confession 

 which might be thought to render such a book neces- 

 sary or expedient. 



It was decided to refer the statutes of the 

 Society of the Holy Cross to a committee of 

 all the bishops of the province, who should 

 submit their report to the President as soon 

 as possible. A committee, to whom had been 

 referred in the previous year a petition on the 

 subject of ecclesiastical discipline, reported that, 

 in their opinion, there were some grounds for 

 dissatisfaction with the present mode of ad- 

 ministration, which it was desirable, as far as 

 possible, to remove ; that the draft of a scheme 

 for improving one branch of the law of the 

 discipline of the clergy had been recently sub- 

 mitted to both Houses of Convocation ; and 

 that there were hopes that some method of 

 dealing with the subject might be suggested 

 by which existing anomalies could be re- 

 moved, " so far as may be consistent with the 

 necessary relations between the Church and 

 the state." The report was adopted. A res- 

 olution was adopted, declaring that, in exact- 

 ing measures for Church discipline, provision 

 should be made for dealing with cases of neg- 

 lect of duty, or other causes of grave scandal. 

 In the Lower House, a petition was presented 

 from 1,606 clergymen, protesting against the 

 virtual repeal of the ornaments rubric in the 



