forementioned rubrics (though now grown obsolete and Sect. IV. out of use) are the Alb, the Cope, the Tunicle, and the Pastoral Staff. The Alb was a very ancient habit worn by ministers in the administration of the Communion, and appears, by the description given of it by Durand 37, to have been a kind of linen garment, made fit and close to the body like a cassock, tied round in the middle with a girdle, or sash, with the sleeves either plain like the sleeves of a cassock, or else gathered close at the hands like a shirt sleeve; being made in that fashion, I suppose, for the conveniency of the minister, and to prevent his being hindered in the consecration and delivery of the elements, by its being too large and open. They were formerly embroidered with various colours, and adorned with fringes 38: but these our church does not admit of, though it still enjoins a white All plain. ment or V. Over this Alb, the Priest that shall execute the holy of the Vestministry, (i. e. consecrate the elements,) is to wear a Vest- Cope. ment or Cope 39; which the Bishop also is to have upon him when he executes any public ministration. This answers to the Colobium used by the Latin, and the Záxxos used by the Greek Church. It was at first a common habit, being a coat without sleeves, but afterwards used as a church-vestment, only made very rich by embroidery and the like. The Greeks say, it was taken up in memory of that mock robe which was put upon our Saviour. How true this may be I shall not inquire, but only observe, that it seems prescribed to none but the Bishop, and the Priest that consecrates the elements at the sacrament. Thus the twenty-fourth canon of our church only orders, that the principal minister (when the holy communion is Copes, administered in all cathedral and collegiate churches) use by whom a decent Cope, and be assisted with an Epistler and Gospeler to be worn. agreeably, according to the advertisements published, Anno 7 Elizabethæ; which advertisements order, that at all other prayers no Copes be used, but Surplices 4°. when and VI. The Priests and Deacons that assist the minister in of the the distribution of the elements, instead of Copes, are to Tunicle. wear Tunicles, which Durand 41 describes to have been a silk sky-coloured coat made in the shape of a Cope. VII. The Pastoral Staff (though now grown out of use) of the Pasis yet another thing expressly enjoined by the above-cited toral Staff. rubric. It is peculiar indeed to the Bishop alone, but ex 37 Durand Rational. lib. 3. cap. 3. fol. 67. See also Dr. Watts, in his Glossary at the end of his edition of Matthew Paris. 38 Durand ut supra. 40 Bp. Sparrow's Collection, p. 125. Chap. II. pressly ordered to be used by him, as an ensign of his office, at all public administrations. It was made in the shape of a Shepherd's Crook, and was for many ages, even till after the Reformation 42, constantly given to the Bishop at his consecration, to denote that he was then constituted a Shepherd over the flock of Christ 43. These ha offensive to Bucer. These are the ministerial ornaments and habits enjoined bits, &c. by our present rubric, in conformity to the first practice Calvin and of our church immediately after the Reformation; though at that time they were so very offensive to Calvin and Bucer, that the one in his letters to the Protector, and the other in his censure of the English Liturgy, which he sent to Archbishop Cranmer, urged very vehemently to have them abolished; not thinking it tolerable to have any thing in common with the Papists, but esteeming every thing idolatrous that was derived from them. And discon book of Ed However, they made shift to accomplish the end they tinued in aimed at, in procuring a farther reform of our Liturgy: the second for in the review that was made of it in the fifth of Edward VI. amongst other ceremonies and usages, these rubrics were left out, and the following one put in their place, viz. ward VI. And here it is to be noted, that the minister, at the time of the Communion, and at all other times in his ministration, shall use neither Alb, Vestment, or Cope; but being Archbishop or Bishop, he shall have and wear a Rochette; and being a Priest or Deacon, he shall have and wear a Surplice only 44. But in the next review under Queen Elizabeth, the old again by Q. rubrics were again brought into authority, and so have Elizabeth. continued ever since; being established by the Act of Uniformity that passed soon after the Restoration. But restored Of the the altar. VIII. I must observe still farther, that among other orlights upon naments of the church then in use, there were two lights enjoined by the injunctions of King Edward VI. (which injunctions were also ratified by the Act of Parliament here mentioned) to be set upon the altar, as a significant ceremony to represent the light which Christ's Gospel brought into the world. And this too was ordered by the very same injunction, which prohibited all other lights and tapers, that used to be superstitiously set before images or shrines 45, &c. And these lights, used time out of mind in the church, are still continued in most, if not all, cathedral and collegiate churches and chapels, so often as 42 See the first ordinal, compiled 43 Durand, I. 3. c. 15. fol. 77. &c. Morning Prayer, in the second Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI. 45 Sparrow's Collection, p. 2, 3. divine service is performed by candle-light; and ought Sect. V. IX. To this section we might also refer the Pulpit- Church or- SECT. V. Of the place appointed for the reading of Morn- enjoined. said. first in the THE reader may observe, that, in the second section of the 46 Vide Bucer. Cens. c. 1. p. 457. moured Chap. II. Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in such places of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel, and the Minister shall turn him, as the people may best hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place47. Which caused great contentions. stored in This alteration caused great contentions, some kneeling one way, some another, though still keeping in the chancel: whilst others left the accustomed place, and performed all the services in the body of the church amongst the people. For the appeasing of this strife and diversity, it was thought fit, when the English service was again Till the old brought into the church, at the accession of Queen Elizacustom was beth to the throne, that the rubric should be corrected, again reand put into the same form in which we now have it; the reign of viz. That the Morning and the Evening Prayer shall be used in the accustomed place of the Church, Chapel, or Chancel; by which for the generality must be meant the Choir or Chancel, which was the accustomed place before the second Common Prayer Book of King Edward. For it cannot be supposed, that this second book, which lasted only one year and a half, could establish a custom. However, a dispensing power was left to the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he saw just cause. beth. The origi ing-Pews, or Desks. Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening sernal of Read-vice was again, as formerly, read in the chancel or choir. But because in some churches the too great distance of the chancel from the body of the church, occasioned sometimes by the interposition of a belfry, hindered the minister from being heard distinctly by the people; therefore the Bishops, at the solicitations of their inferior Clergy, allowed them in several places to supersede their former practice, and to have Desks, or Reading-Pews, in the body of the church, where they might, with more ease to themselves, and greater convenience to the people, perform the daily morning and evening service. Which dispensation, begun at first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came to be an universal practice: insomuch that the convocation, in the beginning of King James I's reign, ordered, that in every church there should be a convenient seat made for the minister to read service in 48. And this being almost threescore years before the Restoration of K. Charles II. (at which time the last review of 47 Rubric before the beginning of morning prayer, in the second book of King Edward. the Common Prayer was made,) it is very probable, that Sect. V. when they continued this rubric, they intended the Desk or Reading-Pew should be understood by the accustomed place for reading prayers. And what makes this the more likely, is a rubric at the beginning of the Communion, which expressly mentions a Reading-Pew, and seems to suppose one in every church. It is true indeed, another rubric at the beginning of the Communion-office (which orders the table, at the communion-time, to stand in the body of the Church or Chancel, where Morning and Evening Prayer are appointed to be said) seems to have an eye to the old practice of reading prayers in the choir. But this rubric being the same that we have in King Edward's second Common Prayer Book, may perhaps have slipt into the present book through the inadvertency of the reviewers, who might not probably just then consider, that custom had shifted the place for the performance of the daily service into another part of the church. Though were it certain that this rubric was continued in the last review, to authorize the old way of reading the prayers in the choir, in such places as had still retained that custom; yet since the ordinaries have a dispensing power, and they have approved of the alteration that has been made in the introducing of Desks; it seems as regular now to perform divine service in them, as it was formerly to do it in the chancel or choir. remain as §. 2. The occasion of the latter part of this rubric relat- Chancels to ing to chancels, was also another of Bucer's cavils; who, they have in his censure of our Liturgy, in the same place that he done in complains of the reading prayers in the choir, inveighs as times past. vehemently against the separation of the choir from the body of the church. This too he calls "an antichristian practice, tending only to gain too great reverence to the "clergy, who would hereby seem nearer related to God "than the laity. That in ancient times churches were "built in a round form, and not in a long one like ours, "and that the place for the clergy was always in the "middle; and that therefore our divisions of the chancels "from the churches, was another article of treason against "God." This objection discovering an equal share of ignorance and ill-nature, seems to have obtained no greater regard than the raillery deserved. For in the review of the Liturgy of the fifth of King Edward, instead of an order to pull down the chancels, as undoubtedly this mighty reformer expected, a clause was added at the end of the first rubric to prevent any alteration, expressly |