(1875) The Church of England and Ritualism
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NOTA BENE: I have no opinion of this 1875 book by William Ewart Gladstone, 1809-1898...
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PRINCETON,
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BV 176 .G522 1875 Gladstone, W. E. 1809-1898. The Church of England and ritualism SA,//.....
THE CHURCH OF EXGLAXD AND RITUALISM.
BY THB^
RIGHT HON. W. E.'gLADSTONE, M.P
Repnnted from " The Contemporary Review," and
revised.
djaepai 8' €7rtA.ot7rot
^apTupes
(Tocfiu/raTot.
Pindar.
STRAHAN 34,
& CO.,
PUBLISHERS,
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
Uaztll, Wateon,
&,
Viney, Printers, London and Ajlesbury
ADVEETISEMENT. To
two
this reprint of
articles
from the Contemporarij
much
Review, ou subjects which have
disturbed the
Churcli of England, I prefix an observation on a
siiigltj
doctrinal significance to ex-
point, that of attaching
ternal usages. I
have nowhere questioned that there are outward
usages,
which may and must be
cance.
My
proposition
ternal usages have tliat
field
contention
is
is
of doctrinal signifi-
simply
where ex-
this, that
subjects of contention,
and
carried to issue in courts of law,
tlie
and
tlie
become
should not be unnecessarily widened
usage should not be
;
interpreted for judicial purposes
with reference to this or that particular dogma, so long,
and of course only so long, as
unconstrainedly bears
(p.
51)
it
naturally and
some sense not entailing
sach a consequence.
Within the last few weeks has been taken from amongst us the venerated Dean Hook, the greatest I believe he had taken parish priest of his age. his part, in a decided and public manner, against the prohibition of the eastward secrator in
the
celebration
of
position of the con-
the
Lord's
Supper.
ADVI-:RTrSE}TEyT.
4
have au opportunity of showing, a-^ I think conclusively, how little it was in his mind hereby to exclude the laity from their full participation in the solemn act, by citing a passage from a
I
am
glad
to
young outward
private letter which he addressed
to a
when were debated among
of
man
in
questions
1842,
us with what
now
all
have been a needless heat and violence.
many
that
afraid
forget Christ,
their
in
as
the Clergy,
God, and who Sacrifice of
for
usage see
to
"I am Church
and in maintaining the rights of the
Clergy forget the rights well
zeal
the
clergy-
the
of
priests
laity
unto
who
;
as
are,
Most High
the
indeed have as large a portion of the
Prayer and Praise assigned to them in
the Prayer-Book as the Ciergy." I seek to show,
by
this extract,
have been, in the mind
of
this
how
innocent must
admirable man, the
how unwise and case among others,
usage of the eastward position, and unjust
it
would have been,
to attach to
tion
to
it
the
'
in his
doctrinal significance
exclude the
laity
from
their
'
of an inten-
share in the
Eucharistic offering. I believe
it
may
be stated, with confidence that there
have been times, when the northward position has been recommended, with authority and learning, as being more adapted than the eastward one to give effect to
full
the teaching of the Sacrifice in the Lord's
Supper.
The notes appended
to this reprint are in brackets.
W. 12th November, 1875.
E. G.
RITUAL AND EITUALISM.*
For some months
past,
and particularly during
tlie
closing weeks of the Session of Parliament, the word
Eitualism has had, in a remarkable degree, possession of "the public ear, clear.
is
and of the public mind.
The road
is
not so easy, when
So much
we proceed
And
search for the exact meaning of the term.
to
yet the first
term
itself
is
not in
fault.
It
admits,
an easy and unexceptionable definition.
sight, of
Eitualism surely means an undue disposition to Kitual itself all
is
founded on the Apostolic precept,
things be done decently and in order
Kal Kara tol^cv, in right,
graceful, or
and by fore-ordered arrangement, exterior
modes
as a distinct
at
of
" ;
and proper subject
*'
Let
evcrxyjjj-oi-ccs
becoming
1 Cor. xiv. 40.
divine service are thus
ritual.
laid
figure,
Tlie
down
for the consideration
of Christians.
But the word Ritualism passes *
From The
Cuntimjjoiary Reiien
in the public
foi
October, ]874.
mind
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
6
for
more
something
for
something more variable, In a more
character.
and such a manner
a kind ritual
indicate
as
ceremonial
of
nation,
for
the purpose
Roman
or Popish ceremonial
ducing the
signifies
it
alter
to
in
to
least
tlie
and by
this
at
assimilating
of
such
undue disposition
established
religion
Roman
form
of
design
a
also
not more vague, in
if
specific
and
terms,
in
specific
the
to
it
and, further, of intro-
;
or Papal religion into this country,
under the insidious form, and
silent
but steady suasion ,^
of its ceremonial.
All this
is
intelligible
enough
;
and,
we
if
start
with
such a conception of Ritualism, we, as a people, ought to
know what we
there
is
anotlier
be given of
it.
think, say, and do about
and a
There
is
briefer
But
it.
may
account which
a definition purely subjective,
but in practice more widely prevalent than any other.
According to this definition, Ritualism that which, in matter of ritual, each
holds to be in excess. it
When
is
man
the term
becomes in the highest degree
to each
man
dislikes,
and
is
thus used,
decei:)tive
covers under an apparent unity meanings as
the
ripples
of
antagonism
to,
loaded
Roman
the or
smiling
sea
as
;
the
;
for it
many
shades
as of
divergence from, the most over-
ceremonial.
employed, sympatby
flies,
When as
if
it
the term
were
is
thus
electricity,
RITUAL AND RITUALISM. through the crowd
but
;
it
7
sympathy based upon
is
Men
the sound and not upou the sense.
thus impelled
mischievously but naturally mistake ihe strength of
The
their feeling for the strength of their argument.
heated mind resents the scrutiny
of
There
logic.
touch and relentless
chill
could
be
no
advantage,
especially at the present time, in approaching such a
theme from
this point of view.
But perhaps
it
may
be
allowable for a
of the polemical field into the
domain
little faith
of thought.
its titles
of appeal to
the free judgment and reason of men, can rarely
what
is
I
But
be ever so clear.
word spoken in quietness, and by way
to be in season.
an
in coercion applied to matter of
opinion and feeling, let a
make
few moments out
endeavour to carry this subject
have but
to
fail
I propose, accordingly, to consider
the true measure and meaning of Ritual, in
order thus to arrive at a clear conception of that vice in
use which
its
is
designated
by the
name
of
Ritualism. Ritual, then,
is
the clothing which, in some form,
and in some degree, men naturally and inevitably give to the
performance of the public duties of rehgiou.
Beyond the carried
;
but
religious
the
sphere
thing
appear, under other names.
the
appears,
In
all
phrase
and
is
never
cannot
but
the more solemn
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
8
and stated public acts
mau, we
of
employed that
find
investiture of the acts themselves with an appropriate
which
exterior,
subject-matter
same
is
it
:
is is
The
the essential idea of ritual.
but the principle
different,
the
is
and adaptation of the outward
the use
for the expression of the inward.
It
may
adaptation course
Why
?
not
should there be any such
leave
things
Is not the inward enough,
?
and pure smother
Why
be asked,
?
it ?
to if it
take
their
be genuine
And may not the outward overlay and But human nature itself, with a thousand The marriage
tongues, utters the reply.
of the
outward
and the inward pervades the universe. They wedded form with artful strife, The strength and harmony of life.
And
the
life
and teaching of Christ Himself are marked
by a frequent employment of signs in which are
laid
the ground, and the foreshowing, both of Sacraments
and of Ritual.
True indeed burn us
;
it is
that the
fire,
the light, meant to guide,
the food, meant to sustain,
and
light
meant
and food
indispensable.
And
perpetual instinct of
are
may
to
warm, may
may
poison us
blind us ;
but
;
fire
not only useful, they are is
with that universal and
human
nature which exacts of
so
it
RITUAL A\D RITUALISM. US,
in
form given externally
tlie
tliat
word and act
our
to
tljoiiglits
be one appropriate to their
shall
Applied to the circle of civilized
substance.
which gives us
principle,
9
life,
this
gives us
ritual in religion,
the ceremonial of Courts, the costume of Judges, the
uniform of regiments, symbol,
the language of heraldry and
all
the hierarchy of rank and
all
descending through
all
title
and which,
;
classes, presents itself in the
badges and the bands of Foresters'
and Shepherds'
Clubs and Benefit Societies.
But
if
be
there
a
vidence and pervading the inward,
it is
— ordained by ProNature — of the outward and marriage
required in this, as in other marriages,
that there be some
harmony
of disposition between
In the perception of this harmony, a
the partners.
life-long observation has impressed
we
me
with the belief
rule,
and apart from
special training, singularly deficient.
In the inward
that
as a jjeople
as a
are,
realms of thought and of imagination, the
England
equally idle
to
reference
external.
of
to stand in the first rank of civilized nations
need not be argued,
in
title
for it is admitted.
any special plea on
ofi'er
to
all
classes
of
The railway and the
the forge, and the mine
every ocean
;
the
It
first
;
would be its
developments
behalf
purely
telegraph, the factory,
the highways beaten upon
place in the trade of the world,
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
lo
where
population would
commercial marine
equalling that
Continental Europe
own
:
may
these
When we come
tale.
selves beaten
now
diversified region
But
of
human
thought
is
find our-
so
large,
not of pure Art
to
of a people.
nothing except pure
that
from
musical, so a music of the eye
Wordsworth)
should
an
the great mass and
lies
As
it.
in the Italian
language scarcely a word can be found which
from
and
vast
same time
at the
— the Art-hfe,
of right excluded
one
in
pursued, and where the
is
substance of the Kunst-lehen is
we
and action, where a
life
Here
outward form of beauty.
a
their
tell
of that
is
;
whole of
left to
is
it
It
instrument employed aspires
sphere
be
fifth
the
of
to pure Art,
speak.
distinct purpose of utility
Its
the
by great countries, and even,
case at least, by small.*
that I would
us but
give
(I
not
is
borrow the figure
pervade
all
visible
pro-
duction and construction whatever, whether of objects in themselves permanent,
porary
only
collocation
of those w^here
or
of
the
parts
is
a tem-
in
view.
This state of things was realized, to a great extent, in the Italian
life
of the middle ages.
But
its
grand
and normal example
is
where the
Beauty was so profusely poured
forth,
that
spirit it
of
seemed
to be sought in ancient Greece,
to
fill
* Belgium.
the
life
and action
of
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
man
as
the kingdoms of Nature
fills
it
the other, was iu
like
ments
way
its
the hand or thought of man,
the
:
one,
The
a Komnos.
embodied
everything
production,
of
\i
ele-
under
spontaneously mto
fell
beautiful form, like the glasses in a kaleidoscope.
It
was the gallant endeavour to give beauty as a matter of
and in
course,
harmony with purpose,
full
manufactured and
that
he
the
name
of
Wedgwood now, and
famous.
The Greeks,
were,
to
so
objects,
which
sold,
speak, a
among
nation of Wedgwoods.
we
those which
numberless form,
the
startled
Athens,
in
Greek
relics of
as
we
if
to
fire
we know from the
as art
Most
we calmly
produce,
were coolly passing our children through the
But
ever,
Greeks,
Attic
and without a sigh surrender to Ugliness,
Moloch.
made
has
trust for
I
the
least
at
to all
and industry
in every
production of anything ngly would have
men by
strangeness as
its
have vexed them
bj^
its
deformity
much ;
as
would
it
and a deviation
from the law of Taste, the faculty by which Beauty is
discerned,
would have been treated simply
deviation from
the
same
it
to all,
principle,
law of Nature.
which
are
a
One and the
need hardly be observed,
material objects
as
produced
ai3plies
once
for
and to matters in which, though the parts may
subsist
before
and
after,
the
combination
of
them
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
12
moment
the
for
is
the design
of
The law
only.
that governed
an amphora or a lamp, governed also
the order of a spectacle, a procession, or a ceremonial.
was not the
It
outward show
tlie
method
that
:
inward meaning to
of the
sacrifice
was
of proceeding
a glorious discovery reserved for the later, and especially for our
Neither was
own, time.
even of the outward to the inward. not find
it
him such
requisite
It
;
between the two.
It is in regard
among be
so,
The Greek
this
to the perception
law that the English, nay,
people, ought probably to be placed last
first
thing
is
'
And
if
to bring into existence
into activity a real consciousness of the defect.
need
not,
of
harmony
the expression of the
the civilized nations of Europe. the
did
was the determination
their meeting-point
the British
the sacrifice
Nature had not imposed upon
:
a necessity.
and observance of
it
if
it
exist,
set
down
it
therefore incurable inaptitude.
It
to natural
it
and
We and
more probably
is
due to the disproportionate application of our given of faculties
store
extent
it
may
in
other directions.
To
a
great
be true that for the worship of beauty
we have
substituted a successful pursuit of comfort.
But
the two in conflict
are
the charge against us, as
we
?
And
first
are, a just
To make good imputations
of
of
one
all,
is
?
any kind against
RITUAL AXD R/TUAL/SWr. ourselves
but au iuvidious
is
more agreeable
office.
tlie
trial
features of the case
this,
is
us liave taken the pains to
to
impartial
tlie
But one
such matters,
in
And, again,
even a habit of observation.
of
few among
that so
form,
would be
Ifc
and judgment of each man.
reflection tlio
leave
to
13
are
tliere
certain cases of exception to the general rule.
For
example, take the instance of our rural habitations. I
do not speak of their architecture, nor especially
do
speak of our more pretentious dwellings.
I
the English garden
proverbial for
is
the English cottage garden stands
beauty
But ;
and
almost alone in
Except where smoke, stench, and the
the world;
havoc of manufacturing and mining operations have utterly
deformed
the
blessed
Nature,
of
face
the
Euglish cottager commonly and spontaneously provides
some
home
in the
little
pasture for his eye by clothing his
where he has been lifelong is
cast
escapes,
the
thus violently deprived of his
communion with Nature, in
huge
he
still
cities
objects,
where
or
his
lot
from which he scarcely ever
resorts to
song of caged birds
natural
And even
beauty of shrubs and flowers.
which
for
are
potted flowers
and
to
sol?C3.
This love of
scarcely
ever
without
beauty or grace, ought to supply a basis on whicli to
build
all
that
is
still
wanting.
But
I
turn
to
RITUAL AXD RITUALISM.
14
another
The ancient
chapter.
tecture
archi-
ecclesiastical
country indicates a more copiously
of this
and a richer
and pursuit
of
beauty,
faculty for its production,
in
connection with pur-
love
diffused
pose, than
Not that we possess
Christendom.
part of
examples.
are
But the parish churches
a whole
as
unrivalled;
the
opinion of persons of
our
in
most splendid
cathedrals and greater edifices the all
any other
to be found in the churches of
is
and
England
of
been the
has
it
of
widest knowledge,
that
they might even challenge without fear the united churches
parish
beauty in
all
of
Europe,
from
wealth of
their
the particulars of their
own
styles
of
architecture. Still, it
does not appear that these exceptions impair
the force of the general proposition, which a people
with
we
are, in
that as
is
the business of combining beauty uninstructed, unaccomplished,
utility, singularly
must be
maladroit, unhandy.
If instances
are not far to seek.
Consider the unrivalled ugliness
of our in a
towns in general. procession, and
stinctively the will
them
loll,
and
see
cited,
Or put Englishmen
to
they
march
how, instead of feeling
in-
music and sympathy of motion, they stroll,
that there
is
and straggle
;
it
never occurs to
beauty or solemnity in ordered
movement, and that the instruction required
is
only
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
15
that simple instruction which, without speech, Nature
should herself supply to her pupils. Quid facerent,
Take again
— sad as
ipsi nullo didicere magistro.
it is
portion of the species
opportunity,
w^orld,
character
and
and
in
point of
design,
and
among
us
Englishwomen,
of
most
the
some
or training
wanting
Take
adaptation.
beauty, at which
all
the
in
in
alike
degraded
the
production,
industrial
all
gift
reputed to be the worst
is
European
state, in
dress
tlie
from rank and special
wliich, apart
or
—
to strike for once at the softer
the arts of
had
arrived
years ago, in the iron age of
fifty
George IV., and before the reaction which has
deemed many
of
them from
disgrace,
re-
and raised some
to real excellence.
But, indeed, in too almost
worse
than
many onr
our repentance
cases,
When we
transgressions.
begin to imbibe the conception that, after is
there
all,
no reason w^hy attempts should not be made to
Beauty with usefulness, the manner
associate
attempts cism.
tentous to
is
too frequently open to the severest
is
The
so-called
doses
actual
of our
of
Beauty
is
administered in por-
sometimes running
ornamentation
deformity.
quality, nor proportion.
Quantity
Who
criti-
is
shall
the
measure,
not
now compete with
;•
RITUAL
i6
of
RITUALISM.
Englisliwoman
the awakened
upon her head,
huilfc
AND
or for the measureless extension
her dragghng train?
some English
house of hair
for the
architects
Who
be the rival of
shall
work with
their
plastering
in order to screen
an infinity of pretentious detail
from attention inharmonious dimension and poverty of Hues
Or
?
— that
charge against
embodied
what age
in
may
I
without disguise direct the
mind and
the
Parliament and
its
or country can
match the
the
of
spirit
nation,
Government
its
practical solecisms
exhibited in the following facts and others like
Forty years
we determined
ago
—
erect
to
them
?
the most
extensive building of Pointed architecture in the world
namely, our Houses of Parliament, called, the
work
to
Palace of Westminster.
our most eminent
was pretty well
;
We
they are
entrusted the
Italian architect.
once was not
but
as
or,
enough.
Once So,
twenty years ago, we determined to erect another vast building in the Italian style offices, or, as
tration
;
some would
namely, a pile of pubhc
;
call
it,
a Palace of Adminis-
and we committed the erection of
most experienced and famous architect species.
Thus each man was
in
it
to our
the Pointed
selected for his unac-
quaintance with the genius of the method in which
he was to work.
Who
can wonder, in circumstances
like those, that the spirit
and soul of style are so often
; ;
RITUAL AND RITUALISM. forgotten in itself,
letter
its
;
beauty
that
17
unlearns
itself
and degenerates into mere display
that for theJ
;
attainment of a given end, not economy of means, but profusion of means, becomes our law and our boast
Houses
that, in the
of Parliament, dispersion of the
essential parts over the widest possible space
marks
a building where the closest concentration should have
been the rule workshop,
;
and that the Foreign
exliibits a Staircase
Sovereign can match in If
Office,
which no palace
dimensions
its
which
is
a
of the
?
from the work of creation we turn to the world of
action, the
same incapacity
of detecting discord,
In what
the same tendency to solecism will appear.
know
country except ours could (as I
to
and
have happened)
a parish ball have been got up in order to supply funds for procuring a parish hearse ?
I shall not admit that, in these remarks, I
have gone
astray from the title and subject of the paper. is
Ritualism
It
?
is
What
unwise, undisciplined reaction
from poverty, from coldness, from barrenness, fi-om nakedness
;
it
is
overlaying Purpose with adventitious
and obstructive incumbrance measure and
fi'om
harmony
it
;
departure from
is
in the annexation of ap-
pearance to substance, of the outward to the inward it is
sion
the caricature of the Beautiful of helps
into
hindrances
;
it
;
it is is
the
the conver-
attempted 2
8
;
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
1
substitution of the secondary for the primary aim, and
A
the real failure and paralysis of both.
great deal of
our architecture, a great share of our industrial production has been or
may
is, it
be feared, very Eitualistic
indeed.
Let us now trace the operation of the same principle
We
in the subject-matter of religion.
same
defects, the
same
encounter the
the same excesses
difficulties,
the same want of trained habits of observation
same forgetfulness burying It
it
of proportion
the same danger of
;
under a mass of ornament.
mast be admitted that the
state of things,
which the thing popularly known historically its point of departure,
disgraceful
Christianity,
most
of all to that
lence endured
it,
the
to
which
nation
all
Nakedness enough there was, ago, of divine service
and of
was to
But,
a great extent
virtues of earnestness
;
to
disgraceful
religious sentiment
somno-
interference with
fifty
among
it.
and forty years
religious edifices,
the Presbyterians of Scotland, and formists of England.
as Eitualism took
in impenetrable
and resented
from
was dishonouring
much-vaunted
of the English public,
fault
the
;
among
among the Nonconthese, the
outward
redeemed by the cardinal
and fervour.
The prayer
of the
minister was at least listened to with a pious attention, ,
and the noblest of
all
the sounds that can reach the
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
human solemn
ear
19
was usually heard in the massive
fall,
swell,
and
of the united voices of the congregations.
But within the ordinary English Parish Church
of
was no such redeeming feature
or country, there
town
in the
action of the living, though the inanimate treasure of
the Prayer-book yet remained. like
the material of
days.
was
It
still
fire in
Its
warmth was
stored,
our coal seams, for better
the surviving bed or mould, in
which higher forms of religious thought and feeling were some day to
be
cast.
of things, as to worship,
known
to
together
me
the
in
and
actual
was bad beyond
experience
expulsion of
classes (especially
But the
parallel
Taking
reading.
or
and labouring
poor
the
all
state
from the town churches), the mutithe
baldness
of the service, the elaborate horrors of the
so-called
lations
blockages
of
the
fabrics,
music, with the jargon of parts contrived to exhibit the powers of every village roarer, and to prevent
congregational singing;
and above
all,
the
all
coldness
and indifference of the lounging or sleeping congregations, our services
were probably without a parallel in
the world for their debasement;
and
as
tliey
would
have shocked a Brahmin or a Buddhist, so they hardly could have been endured in this country had not the faculty of taste, and the perception of the seemly or
unseemly, been as dead as the
spirit
of
devotion.
RITUAL AND RITUALIS'M.
20
There were exceptions, and the exceptions were beginning slowly to grow in number
:
but I speak of the
general state of things, such as I can myself recollect it.
In some places the older traditions and
the Church had survived
the paralysing influences
all
Hanoverian generations
of the first
drals,
men
Hook
like Dr.
;
lofty spirit
in
many
and
cathe-
with stateliness, a remnant of true dignity was
preserved
known
;
and in a third
as Evangelical
class
of cases the clergy
had infused into
their congrega-
tions a reverent sense of the purj)ose for
met
they
others
in
;
were commended to the people by the English pluck of
spirit of
together.
For
this
which they
and other services they were
pointed at with the finger of scorn by the very same
stamp
of peoj)le as those
who
are
denouncing the opposite section. reasons not very different
now most
And
it
fervid in
was
for
both were open to the
;
charge that they did not thoroughly conform to the prescriptions of the Prayer-book; both were apt to slide into the attitude
abounded in by authority and
felt,
and feeling
self-confidence, ;
both,
it
of a clique
;
both rather
and were viewed askance
must be added, were zealous,
or held, to be troublesome.
But
of the general
tone of the services in the Church of England at that
time I do not hesitate to say, carefully considered
it
was such
as
when
would have shocked not only an
RITUAL AND RITUALISM. Christian
earnest
of
whatever communion, but any
sincere beUever in God, any one
was a Creator and Governor creatures ought to worship to press
upon the mind
of things
21
who
held that there
of the world,
and that His
Him. And that which
of the reader
I wish
that this state
is,
was one with which the members
Church generally were quite content.
It
of the
was not by
lay associations with long purses that the people were
with difficulty and with of
state
this
of
much
things.
It
resistance
awakened out
was by the
reforming
Bishops and Clergy of the Church uf England.
though the main som-ce of the lay
deeper,
such an amount of
And,
without doubt
evil effort
hardly
could
have been needed, had the faculties and
of Art
life
been more widely diffused in the country.
Had
we, as a people, been possessed in reasonable
measure
of that sense of
harmony between the inward
and the outward, of which weakness,
it
of a fervent
I
have been lamenting the
could not indeed have supplied the place religious
great pubHc symbol
hfe
;
but Divine worship, the
and pledge
of
among
us.
could have fallen so low
that
And
life,
never
I think it
has been in some measure from the same defect that, during the exterior revivals of the last forty years, there has been so riage, so
much
much misapprehension and
dissatisfaction
and disturbance.
miscar-
More
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
22
than thirty years have passed since agitation in London,
and as
were resorted to
in Exeter,
riot
was conscientiously believed,
of the
for the purpose,
of preserving the purity
Reformed Religion against the use
l^hce in the pulpit,
and of the Prayer
of the sur-
for the
Church
In vain the bishops and the clergy con-
Militant.
cerned made their protests,
and averred that they
were advising, or acting, in simple " obedience to the
The appeal
law."
to that watchword,
was utterly unavailing Popery,
was
it
it
must be the meaning
full
and
intelligent
decidedly unwise.
of these
appeared at the time that their
introduction, however legal, was,
the
so sacred,
Popery, and nothing less than
:
insisted,
To me
changes.
now
But
not effected with
if
concurrence of the flocks,
as to these particular usages
themselves, I held then, and hold now, that their ten-
dency,
when calmly viewed, must have been seen
be rather Protestant than Popish
have led
;
to the use of a different
to
that Popery would
and lower garb in
preaching, not to the use of the same vestment which
was rist
also to be ;
used for the celebration of the Eucha-
and that no prayer in the Prayer-book bears so
visibly the
mark
of the Reformation, as the Prayer for
the Church Militant.
Be
that as
it
with pain a particular case, which
may,
may
I recollect
serve
as
a
sample of the feeling, and the occurrences, of that
RITUAL AND RITUALISM.
An
day.
able
and devoted young clergyman had
cepted the charge of a
new
our largest towns, with
trifling
or
and successfully
in the
him
town
at large
whom
he had begun
Within a year
raised, not in his parish, but
had grown too hot
it
;
emoluments, and with
to gather in.
two an agitation was
and he was morally compelled
;
and from the
his benefice
ac-
one of
district parish in
large masses of neglected poor, steadily
23
place,
for
to hold
to retire
from
the offences of
having preached the morning sermon in the surplice, read the Prayer for the Church Militant, and opened his church festivals.
for
The
Divine service, not
:
not the
i7/uLet
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