Page 4, note 8, line 14, for seventeenth read eighteenth. The inventor (A. Messia, S.J.) died at Lima in 1732. About 1788 the conceit reached Rome, being indulgenced in 1815. Raccolta, s. v. "The Three Hours"; Decrets S. C. Indulg. Repos. p. 255.

,, 307, 383, ", 30,

,, 327, line 20, for epistuller, etc. read epistoller agreeably, according

,, 331, note 54, last line,

to the Advertisements published

anno 7 Eliz."

Pii.

1684

,,478, line 14, for on St. read on some Lord's day before the feast

CHAPTER I.

RITUAL CONFORMITY.

IN 1833 there commenced a movement, the object of which

was

the Catholicising of England, i.e. to bring up all to that faith of the primitive Church, which the Homilies say is specially to be followed as "most incorrupt and pure," or in scientific language, the rule of Vincentius, "quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus," the one faith which has been held by all, everywhere and always. This, and a life, the fruit of God-given faith, it was our object, by the grace of God, to preach and to teach. . . The mission was to the whole people of England, to win them to the full faith of Christ.1

It was soon followed by another, closely connected with it.

1 Unlaw, p. 56, 7. Not that mere antiquity is a certain test; for "antiquity without truth is but antiquity of error."-Cyprian, ad Pomp. § 12, p. 335. Basil 1521.

One who took part in the movement has described it thus: "This intellectual movement was in no way begun by the direct action of the Church, nor by Catholic preachers or theologians of any kind. It was not the work of Catholic priests in England nor of Catholics at all. It sprung up from causes remote from all these agencies,―causes hardly perceived at the time. The effect, however, was most extensive. This school created for itself a whole literature, secular and so to speak theological. It multiplied every form of secular writings,-history, biography, poetry, romance, artistic, and æsthetical works. In theology it translated a Bibliotheca Patrum, wrote dogmatic treatises, controversial arguments, commentaries on Scripture, ritualistic essays, and the like. It pushed its frontier to the verge of the Catholic Church, and rested its extreme position on the Council of Trent. Such was the Oxford movement, of which many reasons warn me to refrain from saying more than that it was a sincere, manly, and resolute attempt to find truth at all hazards, and to follow it at all costs."-Sermons, by H. E. Manning, D.D., p. 48, Duffy, 1863.

The search after "the one faith of the primitive Church," was rewarded, and as it would seem, closed, by the discovery of the Decrees of the Council of Trent. The XXXIX. Articles were held by some of the explorers, if "explained rightly," not to contradict the decrees of the Council of Trent "explained authoritatively." The "primacy of the Bishop of Rome" was readily recognised, nor in the claim of the supremacy itself was there found anything to be objected to. Some of those

This, or "Ritualism," as it is now termed, began, we are told, in the conviction that

every clergyman is bound by the plainest obligations of duty to obey the directions of the Rubric; for conforming to them in every particular he needs no other authority than the Rubric itself.2

With such aims and convictions, all sincere members of the Church of England could not, and cannot, but sympathise and agree. For no one who has clearly perceived and firmly grasped the principles and lines on which the Reformation proceeded, could fail to approve of any sincere desire to approach, in an orderly and lawful way, more nearly to the faith, discipline, and practice of primitive times.

For the reverent and becoming worship of HIM, who is THE FATHER of an INFINITE MAJESTY, must ever be a matter of concern and interest to all Christian people.

The "use of the Church of England," as contained in the Book of Common Prayer, is now, of course, the only one to be followed, until altered by competent authority.

It is the Book common to all, clergy and laity alike, and so it has its direct authority and force, not from any "Law of

who conscientiously accepted this view remained, nominally at least, members of the Anglican Church; others again, seemingly dissatisfied with their position, honestly sought in Rome the faith, unity, and peace for which they yearned.—See Dr. Pusey's letter to Weekly Register, Nov. 22, 1865. Old Fuller, however, bluntly says that the articles of the Church of England and the decrees of Trent were "truth and falsehood starting in some sort both together."-Ch. Hist. IX. 72. And see Hist. de la Comp. de Jesus, by Cretineau-Joly, VI. p. 69, n. I.

2 Unlaw, p. 55; The Helston case in 1844 marks the date. See Stephens' Eccl. Stat. p. 2049.

3 Before the Reformation there were some 90 different service books; some eight or more of these the parishioners were bound to find, for they formed part of the ornaments of the Church. In most parishes this was a very serious charge, and in some it would be far beyond the means of both priest and people. Hence at the Reformation it was provided that the clergy should need no other books for their public service but the Bible and Prayer Book, "by means whereof the people shall not be at so great a charge for books, as in time past they have been."-See Maskell. Mon. Rit. I. p. cxciv.; Can. 32, 34 of K. Edgar, and Can. 21 of Ælfric; Thorpe, A. S. Laws, II. 251, 351; The Canons of Winchelsey, Gray, and Cantilupe; Wilkins, Conc. I. pp. 666, 698; Lyndw., III. Tit. 27, p. 251; Pref. to C.P. of 1549.