Scripture.27 Unitarians are left without protection: it is expressly declared that "neither this Act, nor any clause herein contained, shall be construed to give, in any case, benefit or advantage to any person that shall deny the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity: " 28 eight years later (1697), an Act was passed which made the denial of the doctrine of the Trinity a penal offence, punishable, on a second conviction, with three years' imprisonment.29 Roman Catholics are also excluded from the benefits of the Act.30 Previous legislation making attendance on public worship compulsory is confirmed. Every person in the kingdom is still left under a legal compulsion to be present at the worship of the English Church on Sunday, unless he is present at some congregation or assembly for religious worship permitted by the Act.31 “ For a Nonconformist congregation to secure the protection of the Act, the place in which it worships must be certified to the bishop, the archdeacon, or the justices of the quarter sessions; and during religious worship the doors must not be locked, barred, or bolted "-a provision intended to prevent the holding of seditious meetings under pretence of celebrating Nonconformist worship.32 Any person disturbing the worship of a dissenting congregation meeting in a certified building is made liable to a fine of twenty pounds.33 The Act is a curious example of the characteristic methods of English legislation. The Act of Uniformity is not repealed; the preamble of the Act is left on the Statute-Book, declaring that "a great number of people in divers parts of the realm, following their own sensuality and living without knowledge and due fear of God, do wilfully and schismatically abstain and refuse to come to their parish churches"; but the persons guilty of this grievous offence are exempted from the penalties which the Act imposes on them; if they take the necessary oaths and make the necessary declaration, they may continue to follow" their own sensuality and live without knowledge and due fear of God." The Conventicle Acts, which inflict heavy fines on persons present at Conventicles, are not repealed; 27 1 W. and M., cap. 18, § 13. 28 Ibid., § 17. (Cap. 32 in some editions.) 32 Ibid., § 19, 5. 33 Ibid., § 18. but it is declared that persons may be present at conventicles without being fined. The Five Mile Act is not repealed; but Nonconformist clergymen may reside within five miles of their former parish, or within five miles of a municipal corporation, without being liable to any punishment. Notwithstanding its gross imperfections, the Toleration Act secured freedom of worship to the great majority of Dissenters, and is the foundation of our present liberties. It legalised Nonconformity. VI The Comprehension Bill-described as An Act for uniting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects-was introduced into the House of Lords by the Earl of Nottingham and read a first time on March 11, 1688–9.34 It was a very bold measure. Candidates for ordination in the English Church, instead of being required to sign the Articles and to declare that the Book of Common Prayer and of ordering of bishops and deacons contained in it nothing contrary to the Word of God, were to make the following declaration-" I do approve of the doctrine and worship and government of the Church of England by law established, as containing all things necessary to salvation: and I promise in the exercise of my ministry, to preach and practise according thereunto"; and as the Bill passed through the House, the clause declaring approval of the doctrine, worship, and government of the Church, was softened down to an engagement to "submit to the present constitution" of the Church.35 The revised Declaration was in the following terms: "I, A B, do submit to the present Constitution of the Church of England. I acknowledge that the Doctrine of it contains all things necessary to Salvation, and I will conform myself to the worship and the government thereof as established by Law, and 34 L. J. (March 11 and 14, 1688-9, April 4 and 5, 1689), xiv. 145-146, 147-148, 167, 168-169. 35 "Had the Bill become law, the only people in the kingdom who would have been under the necessity of signing the Articles would have been the dissenting preachers." Macaulay, Hist., iii. 94. I solemnly promise in the exercise of my Ministry to Preach and practise according thereunto." 36 A minister who had received Presbyterian ordination was not to be required to be re-ordained in order to be admitted to a living in the English Church; it was to be sufficient that he submitted to the imposition of the hands of a bishop, who was to address him in these words,-"Take thou authority to Preach the word of God, and administer the sacraments, and to perform all other Ministerial Offices in the Church of England." This clause, however, was struck out.37 By the Act of Uniformity every clergyman presented to any benefice was required, within two months after he was in actual possession of it, to declare "openly and publicly, before the congregation," his "unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer. and the form or manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons ": this declaration was to be unnecessary. 38 Except in the Royal Chapels, and in cathedrals and collegiate churches, the surplice was to be unnecessary. No communicant was to be compelled to kneel when receiving the Lord's supper. No minister was to be compelled to make the sign of the cross when baptizing a child. If the parents wished it, godfathers and godmothers were to be dispensed with.39 The Bill closed with a petition to their Majesties to appoint a commission to revise the Liturgy and the Canons, and to consider by what alterations in the ecclesiastical courts their jurisdiction might be made more effective, especially in the removal of scandalous ministers.40 On the last clause of the Bill there was a vigorous discussion. The Bill provided that the Commission should consist of thirty bishops and priests; the Whig lords insisted 36 A copy of the Bill, preserved among the records of the House of Lords, was published for the first time in the appendix to the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to consider the subscriptions, declarations, and oaths required to be made and taken by the clergy of the United Church of England and Ireland. Parl. Paper, 1865 (3441). For the Declaration see Appendix, 47-48, 53. 38 Ibid., 47. 40 Ibid., 50. 37 Ibid., 48-49. 39 Ibid., 49-50. that some of the Commissioners should be laymen. On a division the numbers for and against the amendment were equal, and the amendment was therefore lost.41 VII In the House of Commons the friends of the Nonconformists were in a majority, and had they been united in favour of the Bill, they could easily have carried it. But, according to Bishop Burnet, some of those who "Seemed most favourable to the dissenters . . . set it up for a maxim, that it was fit to keep up a strong faction both in church and state; and they thought it was not agreeable to that, to suffer so great a body as the presbyterians to be made more easy, or more inclinable to unite to the church they also thought that the toleration would be best maintained, when great numbers should need it, and be concerned to preserve it so this good design being zealously opposed, and but faintly promoted, it fell to the ground." 42 It was suggested that on such questions as those which were raised by the Bill it was proper to ask the opinion of Convocation; but as Parliament had not been regularly called, Convocation was not sitting. The House, therefore, agreed to postpone the further consideration of the Bill till the following year, and to advise the King to summon Convocation.43 VIII But the Royal Commission for the revision of the PrayerBook and the Canons, and for considering what measures were necessary for the reformation of the ecclesiastical courts, was appointed. It included some of the most eminent of the bishops and theologians of the English Church-among the rest, Compton, Bishop of London, and Burnet, the new Bishop of Salisbury, Stillingfleet, Tillotson, Beveridge, Patrick, Kidder, and Tenison. The Commission sat eighteen times, and there 41 L. J. (April 5, 1689), xiv. 168-169. Cobbett, Parliamentary History, v. 213-214, and notes. Rogers, Protests, i. 74-79. 42 Burnet, iv. 20-21, and 17-19. 43 Burnet, iv. 58, 59. Reresby, Memoirs, 344, 345. Nicholls, Apparatus ad Def. Eccl. Anglic., 93. Birch, Tillotson, 344-345. were also meetings of various committees. Burnet, Tillotson, and Tenison were never absent. Lessons from the canonical Scriptures were substituted for Lessons from the Apocrypha. The legendary saints' days were to be omitted. The damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed were explained, and the use of that Creed was to be made less frequent. Forty-two new Collects were drawn up. The Beatitudes were inserted after the Ten Commandments in the Communion Service, with the petition, "Lord have mercy upon us and make us partakers of this blessing." In the office for Baptism parents are permitted to undertake the duty of instructing their children; godfathers and godmothers are not to be necessary; and the sign of the cross is to be omitted at the option of the minister. Additions were made to the Catechism and the Confirmation Service. The Absolution in the Service for the Visitation of the Sick was so modified as to lessen the Nonconformist objections to it.44 But the labours of the Commission came to nothing. Convocation met at the end of November, and the Lower House showed itself irreconcilably opposed to any concession to the Nonconformists. The Comprehension Bill was dropped. It was the opinion of Calamy that if it had become law, twothirds of the Nonconformists would have conformed.45 44 For details of the proposed alterations, see Parl. Paper, 1854 (283); and Calamy, Abridgment, i. 451-455. "The alterations cover ninety pages, and amount to 598 in number." Stoughton, Religion in England, v. 105. 45 Nicholls, App. ad Def. Eccl. Angl., 93-95, 97-100. Calamy, Abridgment, i. 448. |