negatively. The Parliament was not legislating for the regulation of divine worship. In 1662, as we have seen, both Houses, while stiffly maintaining their right to interfere, expressly declined that task, and declared it the proper work of Convocation. This was not from want of interest. The Commons were eager to have some further rules for "reverend gestures." But these things were to be regulated rather by canon than by statute. The Convocation was not even asked to prepare something for submission to Parliament; "some canon or rule," enacted by Convocation with royal assent, would be the sufficient and proper authority. [41] There could be no clearer proof, that, according to the mind of Parliament, Convocation has full powers, and is the proper authority, for dealing with such matters.

But even if this be so, it is urged, on the other hand, that what is contained in the Prayer-book is actually prescribed and stands by authority of Parliament. The Book annexed is treated as a schedule of the Act of Uniformity. It is, says Dr. Stephens,

part of the statute law of the land; and all the legal and equitable principles of construction which apply to statutes in general, equally apply to the Book of Common Prayer. [42]

This opinion, supported as it is by a general consent of high authorities, I venture to contest. What is meant by the Book being "annexed" to the statute? Physically, it was attached by strings to the parchment on which the Act was engrossed. Was it legally a part of the statute? Was it a schedule? The procedure in Parliament, I submit, makes against this opinion. Can the schedule of a Bill in Parliament be amended otherwise than by the vote of the two Houses? But when a mistake was found in the Book annexed, it was corrected, as we have seen, not by the clerk under authority of Parliament, but by three bishops under authority of Convocation. Could any part of a Bill in Parliament have been so amended? The matter was trivial; there was the less reason for abnormal measures; and Parliament has always been jealous about small matters of procedure, and never more so than at that period. I submit that the Book annexed cannot be regarded as an integral part of the statute.

But if the Prayer-book is thus external to the statutes which require its use, can its meaning be affected by any of the provisions of those statutes? If the wisdom of Parliament had enacted on some occasion that Aldrich's Logic and the Elements of Euclid should be read in the Universities, would it follow that the rules of the syllogism and the axioms of geometry are to be interpreted by "the principles of construction which apply to statutes"? Or since geography is by statutory authority taught in our elementary schools, are we to infer that the world revolves on its axis subject to the British Constitution?

The Prayer-book is a liturgical document, and surely it should be interpreted by the principles which apply not to statutes, but to liturgies in general.

If the Acts of Uniformity are not laws for regulating divine worship, what are they? I should call them, briefly, laws of persecution. They were intended to enforce on all men by criminal process the observance of the Church's forms. That is persecution, I suppose, if anything can be so called. I shall not indulge in any moral reflexions on persecution. They may be taken for granted. I shall only note the dry fact that within thirty years of the last enactment the whole purpose of the statutes was destroyed by the Act of Toleration. A good part of them has been formally repealed, as may be seen by a glance at their text as printed in the Revised Statutes. What remains? A singular ruin. The effect of the law has been turned upside down. It was intended only to restrain dissenters; dissenters are now the only people to whom it does not apply. It was intended only to prevent unauthorized variations from the Prayer-book; it is effective now to prevent authorized variations alone. The one effect of the Acts of Uniformity at the present time is to render it practically impossible for the authorities of the Church to make the smallest amendment of the text of the Book of Common Prayer. In doing this they would run counter to the law which orders the use of this Book and none other. Unauthorized variations, on the other hand, are unchecked by the Acts of Uniformity. So far as they are restrained at all, they are restrained by the general disciplinary powers of the Church. Theoretically those who indulge in them are liable to the statutory penalties imposed by the Act of Elizabeth. Practically these cannot be enforced; their savagery makes it impossible. They stand as they were enacted in 1549, and again ten years later; they are now intolerable. I am told that no attempt has been made to enforce them since the year 1796, nor is there any chance of their being revived. The Acts of Uniformity, so far as they relate to the Prayer-book, have therefore no present effect but to hinder the activity of the Church. They began with fierce persecution on behalf of the Church. They end by being merely a nuisance.

APPENDIX

State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, Vol. VII., No. 46.

Ther returned into England upon Queene Maryes death that had bin Bishops in K. Ed. 6 tyme

1. Coverdale.

2. Scorye.

3. Chenye.

4. Barlowe.

Ther remaned Bishops for some tyme that were Bishops in Queene Maryes tyme,

1. Oglethorpe, B. of Carleile who crowned Q. Eliz.

2. Kichin, B. of Landafe,

Ther were Bishops in the Parlament holden primo Eliz. and in the Convocation holden at the same tyme

Edmunde B. of London.

John B. of Winton.

Richard B. of Wigorne.

Ralph B. of Covent and Lichfeilde.

Thomas B. of Lincolne.

James B. of Exon.

The Booke of Comon Prayer, published primo Eliz. was first resolved upon and established in the Church in the tyme of K. Ed. 6. It was re-examined with some small alterations by the Convocation consistinge of the said Bishops and the rest of the clergy in primo Eliz. which beinge done by the Convocation and published under the great scale of Englande ther was an Acte of Parlament for the same booke which is ordinarily printed in the beginninge of the booke; not that the booke was ever subjected to the censure of the Parlament but being aggreed upon and published as afforesaid, a law was made by the Parlament for the inflictinge of penalty upon all such as should refuse to use and observe the same; further autoryty then so is not in the Parlament, neyther hath bin in former tymes yealded to the Parlament in thinges of that nature but the judgment and determination therof hath ever bin in the Church, therto autorised by the Kinge which is that which is yealded to H. 8. in the statute of 25 his raygne. [Endorsed] Bishops.

******

Another copy follows, No. 47, written with modernised spelling. It is endorsed as follows:

(1) Bishops.

(2) Power of the Convocn in framing the Book of Common Prayer &c. and of the Act of Parlt Sr. Th. Wilson's hand.

The second endorsement of No. 47 (wrongly given in the Calendar as "Progress of the Convocation, etc.") is in the handwriting of Sir Joseph Williamson, Keeper of the State Paper Office, and from 1674 to 1679 Secretary of State. Sir Thomas Wilson was a confidential servant of Robert, Earl of Salisbury, who often employed him in matters of secret police. He was made Keeper of the S.P. Office in 1605 and died in 1629. A comparison with his letters and notes preserved in the Record Office shows that the copy in his handwriting