The Acts of Uniformity 1

The Acts of Uniformity 1

The Acts of Uniformity Their Scope and Effect

 

Author: T.A. Lacey

 

NOTE

 

 

The following paper, read at Oxford

before certain members of the University,

in November, 1899, is published at the

request of some who heard it.

 

 

 

THE ACTS OF UNIFORMITY

 

 

The Acts of Uniformity are incidents in a great

movement. They are far from being the most important

of its incidents. Their importance has perhaps

been exaggerated, and their purport is commonly

misunderstood. My object is to place them in their

true relation to other incidents. It is useless to study

them apart; they cannot be understood except as

details of a connected history. I shall confine myself,

however, to a narrow, question: assuming the general

history, I shall ask how the several Acts of Uniformity

come into it, with what purpose and with what ultimate

effect. To study immediate effects would be to

engage in too wide an inquiry.

 

We owe thanks to the men who drafted the

statutes of the sixteenth century for their long argumentative

preambles. These are invaluable as showing

the occasion and purpose of the Acts. We shall not

go to them for an uncoloured record of facts--their

unsupported assertions will hardly, indeed, be taken as

evidence for facts at all; but they tell us to what facts

the legislator wished to call attention, and in what

light he would have them regarded. The preamble

of the first Act of Uniformity is among the most

illuminating, and with its help we can assemble the

facts in relation to which the purport of the Act must

be determined.

 

We are in the year 1548. Important changes in

matters of religion had taken place; greater changes

were in prospect. The processions before High Mass

on Sundays and Festivals, conspicuous and popular

ceremonies, had been stopped on rather flimsy grounds,

and a Litany in English substituted--the "English

Procession," as it was called. Many images in the

churches had been destroyed, as superstitious; the

censing of those remaining had ceased. The peculiar

ceremonies of Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, and Palm

Sunday had been omitted in many places. A chapter

of the Bible in English was being read after the

lessons at Mattins, and at Evensong after _Magnificat_.

 

It was not very clear by what authority these

innovations had been made. There had been royal

proclamations and injunctions; episcopal injunctions

and orders on visitation. There was another change,

perhaps the most striking of all, in which Parliament

had intervened. The first Act of the first Parliament

of Edward VI. required the administration of the Holy

Sacrament of the Altar in both kinds. No penalties

were annexed, though elsewhere in the same statute

severe penalties were appointed for depravers of the

Sacrament. Convocation had concurred, adopting on

December 2, 1547, a resolution of some sort in favour

of communion in both kinds. [1] The records are too

scanty to show exactly what was done. An _Order of

the Communion_ with English prayers, to be inserted

in the usual order of the Mass, was afterwards published,

and brought into general use, on the command

apparently of the King and his Council. Nothing

was said in the Act of Parliament about the mode of

giving communion, and therefore,

 

lest every man phantasing and devising a sundry way by

himself, in the use of this most blessed Sacrament of

unity, there might thereby arise any unseemly and ungodly

diversity,

 

the King put forth this Order to be exclusively

followed. [2] A letter from the Council to the bishops

of the realm explains the source of the Order. It was

drawn up at the King's desire, by

 

sundry of his majesty's most grave and well learned

prelates, and other learned men in the scripture. [3]

 

This, then, was commanded by public authority. But

there were other innovations of more doubtful origin.

On May 12, 1548, at the commemoration of Henry

VII. in Westminster Abbey, Wriothesley tells us of

 

the masse song all in English, with the consecration of the

sacrament also spoken in English,

 

the priest afterwards "ministering the communion

after the Kinges booke." In September, at the consecration

of Fernir by Cranmer, Holbeach and Ridley,

something of the same kind was done. The account

in Cranmer's Register is confused, but it says distinctly

that the Holy Eucharist was _consecrata in lingua vernacula_.

The churchwardens of St. Michael's, Cornhill,

this same year paid five shillings

 

to the Scolle Mr of Polles, for wrytyng of the masse in

Englysh & ye benedicites;

 

doubtless for use in church. [4] In May, again, according

to Wriothesley,

 

Poules quire and dyvers other parishes in London song all

the service in English, both mattens, masse, and evensonge.

 

At St. Michael's, "viii Sawtters in Englyshe" were

bought. [5] In September, Somerset, as Chancellor,

wrote to the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge that in all

the Colleges they should

 

use one uniform order, rite, and ceremonies in the mass,

mattins and evensong, and all divine service in the same

to be said or sung, such as is presently used in the king's

Majesty's chapel, and none other. [6]

 

There is nothing to show what was specially intended

here, but a copy of the order in question was sent with

the letter for more information.

 

Meanwhile steps were being taken for a thorough

reform of the customary services. A committee of

Convocation had been appointed for "examining, reforming,

and publishing the divine service." In

November, 1547, the clergy of the lower house of Convocation

petitioned to have the result submitted to them,

with what success is not known. [7] The _Order of Communion_

was not improbably the work of this committee.

During the year 1548 we know that several divines--probably

the same committee still continuing [8]--were

engaged in the task of drawing up an order of service,

which at a meeting of the bishops held in October

or November was subscribed by all, with the single

exception of Day of Chichester. This was the order

afterwards brought into use, apparently with some

verbal alterations, as the Book of Common Prayer. [9]

 

Here we see things in great confusion. The cause

of the confusion is not far to seek. The services of

the Church were regulated by custom, and custom

was crumbling to pieces. Uniform in the main, the

services in different places had varied in detail. The

tradition of each place had been maintained partly

by conservative instinct, partly by the pressure of

ecclesiastical discipline. The conservative instinct

was now giving-way to a temper of innovation;

ecclesiastical discipline was paralyzed by the interference

of the Crown. Men could see no reason why

they should not innovate, and the authorities of the

Church were powerless to restrain them. England

was threatened with the state of things prevailing in

Germany, where the clergy and magistrates of every

free town took it upon themselves to revise the order

of divine service; where the bishop of Strassburg, for

example, even in his own city and his own cathedral,

could not prevent the introduction of a strange and

novel ritual. [10]

 

Into this environment the first Act of Uniformity

was projected. In the preamble of the Act we find

the state of things not unfairly described, with a

discreet avoidance, however, of all reference to the

causes of confusion. Mention is made of the old

diversity of use, and then of the new and far greater

diversity that was coming in. The godly care of the

King, the Protector and the Council, in setting the

bishops and divines to work at reforming the service

of the Church, is gratefully acknowledged. This work

was now concluded "by the aid of the Holy Ghost,

with one uniform agreement." The title of the book

so prepared is recited: _The Book of Common Prayer,

and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites

and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the

Church of England_. The enactment then proceeds: