Hampton was curtly answered, that the general peace of the Church Conference a must be preferred to the credits of a few private men, the Conference ended with a joint promise of the Puritan representatives to be quiet and obedient, now they knew it to be the King's mind to have it so.1 Revision of Book after the Confer ence, the Prayer Certain alterations were thus agreed to by the King and the bishops at the Conference; but the particular form in which they should be expressed was referred to a small committee of the bishops and the privy council:2 and upon their report the King issued his letters patent3 (Feb. 9), specifying the alterations, and ordering the publication and the exclusive use of the amended Book. The authority for this was the undefined power of the Crown in ecclesiastical matters, as well as the statutable power granted by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity by the royal in 1559. And care was taken to call the alterations by the name of explanations, to bring them under the clause in Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity, which empowered the sovereign, with the advice of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to ordain further ceremonies, if the orders of the Book should be misused. We must say, however, that 1 See Cardwell, Hist. of Conferences, 'Letter of Dr. James Montague, dean of the Chapel Royal,' pp. 138, sq.; and 'The Sum and Substance of the Conference, contracted by Dr. William Barlow, dean of Chester,' ibid. pp. 167-212. 2 The Commissioners were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Henry Howard, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord of Kinlose, and Mr. Secretary Harbert. 3 Cardwell, Conferences, p. 217. 4 See the letters patent, ubi supra. Also in a proclamation (March 5), the King says, 'We thought meet, with consent of the bishops and other learned men there present, that some small things might rather be explained authority, and sancConvocation. tioned by after Changes made these alterations had the sanction of Convocation, inasthe Hampton much as that body allowed this exercise of the prerogative, and ordered the amended book to be provided for the use of the parish churches.1 Conference. A The following changes were made at this time (1604): -In the calendar: Aug. 26, Prov. xxx. was appointed instead of 'Bel and the Dragon' (or Dan. xiv.); and Oct. 1 and 2, Exod. vi., Josh. xx. and xxii., instead of Tobit v., vi., and viii. Into the title of the Absolution were inserted the words, 'or Remission of Sins.' prayer for the Queen, the Prince, and other the King's and Queen's children, was placed after the prayer for the King; and a corresponding petition was inserted in the Litany. Thanksgivings for particular occasions, for Rain, for Fair Weather, for Plenty, for Peace and Victory, and for Deliverance from the Plague, in two forms, were added to the Occasional Prayers in the end of the Litany, and were styled, 'An enlargement of thanksgiving for diverse benefits, by way of explanation.' In the Gospels for the 2d Sunday after Easter, and the 20th Sunday after Trinity, the words 'unto his disciples' were omitted, and 'Christ said' and 'Jesus said' were to be printed in letters differing from the text. The main alteration was made in the rubrics of the Office of Private Baptism; the administration being now restricted to the minister of the parish, or some other lawful minister. The title had been, 'Of them that be baptized in private after the Hampton Court Conference. houses in time of necessity;' now it became, 'Of them Changes made that are to be baptized in private houses in time of necessity, by the Minister of the parish, or any other lawful Minister that can be procured.' The 2d rubric,-' that without great cause and necessity they baptize not children at home in their houses... that then they minister on this fashion . . .' was amended as it now stands, '. . . they procure not their children to be baptized... The 3d rubric, 'First, let them that be present call upon God for his grace . . . and one of them shall name the child, and dip him in the water, or pour...' was now, 'First, let the lawful Minister, and them that be present, call upon God for his grace, and say the Lord's Prayer, if the time will suffer. And then the child being named by some one that is present, the said lawful Minister shall dip it in water, or pour water upon it... A corresponding alteration was made in the 4th rubric; and the inquiry'Whether they called upon God for grace and succour in that necessity?'-was omitted, and the reason of caution inserted in its place. 'And because some things essential to this sacrament may happen to be omitted through fear or haste in such times of extremity; therefore I demand further.... Confirmation' was explained by adding, ‘or laying on of hands upon children baptized, and able to render an account of their faith, according to the Catechism following.' The concluding portion upon the Sacraments was added to the Catechism,1 and is generally attributed to Overal, the prolocutor of the Convocation. Book. In 1608 the Prayer Book was printed in Irish, having Irish Prayer been translated by William Daniel, or O'Donnell, archbishop of Tuam, who had in 1602 published the first Irish version of the New Testament.2 1 See the King's letter, commanding the alterations; Cardwell, Conferences, p. 217. 2 See Stephens, MS. Book of Common Prayer for Ireland (ed. Eccl. Hist. Soc. 1849). Introd. p. xxix, sq. The Prayer The Prayer Book used in Scotland for seven years. Assembly sanction a Liturgy and In Scotland the use of prescribed forms of prayer has ever been a matter of controversy. The English Book had been in general use there in the time of Elizabeth, between the years 1557 and 1564; and Knox found no small difficulty in setting it aside for his own Book of James I. introduced episcopacy into Common Order. that part of his kingdom in 1610, and in 1616 he The General obtained the sanction of the General Assembly at Aberdeen, that a Prayer Book should be compiled for the use of the Church, and a body of Canons framed as a rule of discipline.2 James, however, desired that the English Book should be accepted; and in 1617 it was used in the chapel royal of Holyrood. But the Scottish bishops chose rather to have a distinct book; and in 1618 the proposition was again made, by the King's desire, to the General Assembly at Perth, to have a Liturgy and Canons for the Church of Scotland. At length, in conformity with these resolutions, a Book of Service was prepared,5 and submitted to the judgment of the King and some Scottish bishops at the English Court. but not used. Nothing more, however, was effected during this reign." A Service Book prepared, Charles I. continued the design of introducing the English Prayer Book into Scotland, and ordered it to be daily used in the royal chapel. He also urged it upon the Scottish bishops in 1629, and again when he was crowned at Edinburgh in 1633.7 While the older bishops were 1 Collier, Eccl. Hist. VI. 580. 3 Hall, Rel. Lit. Introd. P. xxii. 5 A copy of this first draft of a This very 6 Collier, Eccl. Hist. VIII. 60. An Ordinal was adopted in 1620, based on the then English Ordinal, but only recognising two OrdersBishops and Ministers. rare book has been reprinted in the Wodrow Miscellany, and by Mr. Forbes in his edition of the Works of Bp. Rattray (Burntisland, 1854), pp. 695-712. 7 Collier, Eccl. Hist. VIII. 61. The Prayer The Scottish fuse the bishops re English They pre pare a Ser vice Book, apprehensive that a Liturgy would not be tolerated by the people, the younger declared that there was no cause for fear: they, however, would only agree to an independent book for Scotland,1 thinking that this would satisfy their countrymen. A code of Canons, enforcing the observance of the intended Prayer Book, was sent into the North in 1635; and a Book of Service was then prepared in Scotland, and transmitted to Archbishop Laud, who with Wrenn, bishop of Norwich, was appointed by the King to assist the Scottish bishops.3 Laud's opinion was, that, if a Liturgy was adopted by against Land's judg the Northern Church, 'it were best to take the Englishment. Liturgy without any variation, that so the same Service Book might be established in all his majesty's dominions' but finding that it would not be accepted, he gave his assistance in reviewing the Scottish Book. This had been framed upon the English model; but with it was joined a paper of 'Certain notes to be considered of.' Besides suggesting that the extracts from Scottish pro Scripture should be printed according to the last translation of the Bible, it was proposed, 'that every Prayer, or Office, through the whole Communion, should be in the Com named in the rubric before it, that the parts of the Service might be better distinguished to the congregation that the Invitation, Confession, Absolution, Sentences, Prefaces, and Doxology, should be set in the same order they stand in the English Liturgy: and that the Prayer of humble access to the Holy Table might 1 Hall, Reliq. Liturg. Introd. p. xxiii. 2 The chief compilers were Maxwell, bishop of Ross, and Wedderburn, of Dunblane. Cf. the account of the Scottish Prayer Book in Blunt, Annotated Prayer Book, pp. 580 sq.; Collier, Eccl. Hist. VIIL 107. 3 Juxon, bishop of London, was also appointed; but being also Lord Treasurer, he was too busily occupied to pay the requisite attention; so that the work was left to Laud and Wren. Ibid. p. 108. 4 Laud, Hist. of Trials, p. 168. posals, munion . |