The Acts of Uniformity 2

The Acts of Uniformity 2

"All and singular ministers in any Cathedral or

Parish Church, or other place within this realm of

England, Wales, Calice, and Marches of the same,

or other the King's dominions, shall from and after

the Feast of Pentecost next coming, be bounden to

say and use the Mattins, Evensong, celebration of

the Lord's Supper, commonly called the Mass, and

administration of each the Sacraments, and all their

common and open prayer, in such order and form as

is mentioned in the same Book, and none other, or

otherwise."

 

Then follow the penalties. Any minister refusing

to use the Book, or using any other, or

speaking in derogation of the Book, for the first

offence is to forfeit to the King one year's profits

of some one of his spiritual promotions, if he have

any, and to suffer six months' imprisonment. For a

second offence he is to lose all his promotions and

suffer one year's imprisonment. For a third offence

the penalty is imprisonment for life. If he have no

promotion, he is for the first offence to suffer six

months' imprisonment; and for a second, imprisonment

for life. There are penalties for laymen also.

Any person speaking in derogation of the Book, or

interrupting its use, or causing a minister to use any

other form, is for the first offence to forfeit ten pounds,

for a second offence twenty pounds; on a third

occasion he is to forfeit all his goods and chattels and

suffer imprisonment for life. These penalties are to

be enforced by judges of assize, proceeding in the

manner customary on indictment for trespass.

 

What have we here? A purely penal statute,

imposing the crushing penalties usual at the time.

My purpose is to show the relation of the statute to

the Book of Common Prayer. I observe, then, that

the Book did not originate with the Act. It was

already in existence, the fruit of the work of certain

divines, which is spoken of in the preamble as concluded.

The book was not authorized or brought

into use by the Act. It was already in use, though

by no means in general use. This fact is illustrated

by the title of the Book itself, which sets forth the

contents with some audacity as being _After the Use

of the Church of England_. I am not here concerned

with the question--the very difficult question--of the

authority by which the Book came into existence and

into use. I am only concerned to show that the

authority in question was not the authority of Parliament.

The Act of Uniformity did not authorize the

use of the forms contained in the Prayer-book, for

that was needless; it forbade the use of any other

forms. It did not bring the Book into use, for that

was already done; it brought it into exclusive use,

which is not the same thing. It was not an enabling

Act, but a prohibitory Act. It did not propose or

command a reform; it found the reform already

made. It did not purport to set forth an order of

divine service; it found an order already in existence,

and forbade the use of any other. It was frankly

a persecuting law, and as such may fairly be compared

with the statute of the Six Articles. In that case the

doctrinal articles, as in this case the forms of worship,

were not invented or introduced by authority of

Parliament; the statute in each case merely imposed

a penalty on all who impugned or refused them. The

purpose of the Act was to secure by temporal penalties

an uniformity which the ecclesiastical authorities of

the time were unable to compass, and which it is

possible they did not greatly desire.

 

I shall not deal with the fortunes of the Prayerbook

under the Act, or with the violent changes

effected apart from the Act during the two or three

years that followed. One incident, however, calls for

notice. There were in London at this time numerous

refugees of the reformed persuasion, chiefly from the

Belgic provinces. These men organized themselves

into a congregation, worshipping after their own

rites. The King granted them the disused church

of the Austin Friars. Here they came under the

notice of the Lord Mayor, and of Ridley, the bishop

of London, who attempted to enforce the Act of

Uniformity against them. The matter was debated

with much acrimony, and the Council intervened with

a royal letter forbidding any interference with the

congregation. So far as I know, this was the only

act of toleration perpetrated during the reign of

Edward VI. [11]

 

The second Act of Uniformity need not detain

us. The Prayer-book had been elaborately revised,

still without the initiative or concurrence of Parliament.

The statute of 1549, however, hindered the use of the

revised Book; to use it was a penal offence. It was

therefore necessary to put the revised Book in the

legal position occupied by the unrevised Book. This

was done by the Act of the fifth and sixth of

Edward VI., in which opportunity was taken to add

some pious reflections, which may breathe the spirit

of Northumberland and the Council, and some further

penalties, which may seem to us more in accordance

with the spirit of the time. There was a clause

cautiously relaxing the bonds in which the ecclesiastical

jurisdiction was held, in order that it might

come to the assistance of the champions of Uniformity.

The only other point of interest is the statement that

the revised Book was "annexed and joined" to the

statute, a precedent which was followed in 1662.

 

In the second session of Mary's first Parliament

the Acts of Uniformity were repealed. But the

appetite for legislation was aroused. Mary, too, had

ideas about legal uniformity. She had no handy and

comprehensive service-book, the use of which could

be enforced; but the vague standard of what was

customary at a certain date was set up:

 

All such Divine Service and Administration of Sacraments,

as were most commonly used in the Realm of

England in the last year of the reign of our late

Sovereign Lord King Henry the Eight,

 

were alone to be used. Strangely enough, no penalties

were appointed for the disobedient. [12]

 

Elizabeth, immediately upon her accession, began

to take measures quietly and cautiously for returning

to the Edwardian position. She revived the use of

the English Litany in her chapel, and encouraged it

elsewhere. So far nothing was done seriously contrary

to the statute of Mary, for the Litany as now

used varied but little from that used under Henry

VIII. Others, however, went further. The returning

exiles, and those who had secretly sympathized

with them, began to use the Edwardian Prayer-book. [13]

There were no statutory penalties to restrain them,

and the bishops looked on helpless, or acquiescent.

Even in the Queen's chapel, it is said, the English

service was used on Easter Day. [14] Long before the

Prayer-book was restored to its legal position. Parkhurst

was able to write to Bullinger, perhaps with

some exaggeration, that it was again in general use:

_Nunc iterum per totam Angliam in usu passim est_. [15]

 

It was the Prayer-book as used in the last year

of King Edward which was thus revived. But meanwhile

a committee of divines was at work revising it.

Little is known of their proceedings, or of the authority

under which they acted, nor am I concerned with this

question. [16] There is in the Record Office a paper

which roundly asserts that Convocation went over the

Book and approved the alterations before it was

brought into Parliament. The document is undated,

but the calendar assigns it to the year 1559. It

is, however, certainly not of this date, and though

interesting from another point of view, it cannot be

taken to have any value as evidence of fact. [17] The

statement cannot be reconciled with what we know

of the proceedings of Convocation at the time.

 

Parliament met on the 23rd of January, 1559, and

after some abortive attempts at legislation a Bill for

Uniformity was brought into the House of Commons

on April 18, and passed within two days; in the

House of Lords it was keenly debated, but passed

without amendment on April 28, [18] all the bishops

present dissenting. By this third Act of Uniformity

all the provisions of the former statutes were revived.

The same penalties were enacted, with one addition--a

fine of one shilling for absence from church on

Sundays or holy days, to be levied by the churchwardens

of each parish. The Prayer-book is not

said to be annexed to the Act, [19] but is identified by

reference to the statute of the fifth and sixth of

Edward VI., by which it is said to have been

"authorized." Certain changes to be made in the

Book so identified are specified: it is to be used

 

with one alteration, or addition of certain Lessons

to be used on every Sunday in the year, and the form

of the Litany altered and corrected, and two sentences

only added in the delivery of the Sacrament to the communicants.