in the evening, and omitted to read them at all on certain saint days. The learned judge who tried the indictment, Mr. Baron Perryn, observed that it was primæ impressionis, and being of opinion that the offence complained of was purely of ecclesiastical cognizance, and not the subject of prosecution in the temporal courts, directed the jury to acquit the defendant; which they accordingly did. SECT. 7.-Performance of Divine Service. The law of the Church of England, as has been said, Law as to requires the performance of daily service in the morning daily service. and evening. In this respect, as in others, there appears to be a discrepancy between the rubric and the canons. It still appears to me, notwithstanding the judgment of the Privy Council in the Purchas case (1), that the former overrides the latter authority. By the preface to the Book of Common Prayer: "All priests and deacons are to say daily the morning and evening prayer, either privately or openly, not being let by sickness, or some other urgent cause.' And the curate that ministreth in every parish church or chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the parish church or chapel where he ministreth; and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto, a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God's word, and to pray with him. By the rubric before the common Prayer Book of the In what part 2 Edw. 6, it was ordered thus: "The priest being in the of the church. quire, shall begin with a loud voice the Lord's Prayer, called the Paternoster." In the Quire.]-That is, in his own seat there, as the way was all Edward the Sixth's time; and as is still done in some churches: but in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, reading desks began to be set up in the body of the church, and divine service to be read there, by appointment of the ordinaries, according to the power vested in them by the rubric of the 5 & 6 Edw. 6 (m). Shall begin.]-All that now goes before, viz. the sentences, exhortation, confession, and absolution, were first inserted in the second book of Edward the Sixth. By the rubric before the present common prayer: "The morning and evening prayer shall be used in the accus(1) Vide supra, p. 920. (m) Gibs. 297. Common prayer to be used on holidays. Litany on Wednesday and Fridays. Statutory power of bishop to tomed place of the church, chapel, or chancel: except it shall be otherwise determined by the ordinary of the place." By Can. 14 of 1603, "The common prayer shall be said or sung distinctly and reverently, upon such days as are appointed to be kept holy by the Book of Common Prayer, and their eves, and at convenient and usual times of those days, and in such places of every church, as the bishop of the diocese or ecclesiastical ordinary of the place shall think meet for the largeness or straitness of the same, so as the people may be most edified. All ministers likewise shall observe the orders, rites, and ceremonies prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, as well in reading the Holy Scriptures and saying of prayers, as in administration of the sacraments, without either diminishing in regard of preaching, or in any other respect, or adding any thing in the matter and form thereof." By Can. 15, "The Litany shall be said or sung, when and as is set down in the Book of Common Prayer, by the parsons, vicars, ministers or curates, in all cathedral, collegiate, and parish churches and chapels, in some convenient place, according to the discretion of the bishop of the diocese, or ecclesiastical ordinary of the place; more particularly, upon the Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, though they be not holidays, the minister at the accustomed hours of service shall resort to the church and chapel, and warning being given to the people by tolling of a bell, shall say the Litany prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer: whereunto we wish every householder, dwelling within half a mile of the church, to come or send one at the least of his household fit to join with the minister at prayers." It should be observed that in certain cases the bishop has been, independently of his general authority, specially order service. empowered to order the number of the services to be performed, and to apportion the duties of the clergymen. Bishop empowered in certain cases to order perform ance of a third service in a parish. By 58 Geo. 3, c. 45, s. 65, it is enacted as follows: "In any parish or extra-parochial place in which it shall appear to the bishop of the diocese that the churches or chapels now existing, or which may be built or provided under any of the provisions of this act, do not or will not afford sufficient accommodation for the parishioners or inhabitants thereof to attend divine service according to the rites of the united church of England and Ireland, and in which such bishop shall be of opinion that it is expedient that additional accommodation should be provided for such purpose, and that such purpose would be answered by the celebration on Sundays and on the great festivals of a third or additional divine service, being either the a curate for this purpose. morning or evening service of the united church of England and Ireland, as shall be directed by the bishop of the diocese, with a sermon, in the churches or chapels existing at the time of passing this act (n), or by the celebration of a third or additional service as aforesaid, with a third sermon, in any church or chapel which may be built or provided, under any of the provisions of this act, it shall be lawful for such bishop to require the incumbent of And to license every such parish, district parish, or extra-parochial place, to nominate to him a proper person to be licensed to serve as a curate in the existing church or chapels for the performance of such additional or third service with a sermon, or, in any church or chapel which may be built or provided as aforesaid for the performance of such additional or third service with a third sermon; and such incumbent shall within six months after such requisition nominate such curate to the bishop to be licensed, and in default of such nomination such bishop is hereby empowered to nominate and license a proper curate for the purpose aforesaid; and the said bishop is hereby empowered to Whose salary require the churchwardens of every such church or chapel shall be paid to let for the said additional service such proportion of the or subscription. by pew-rents pews of such church or chapel, not being a pew held by faculty or prescription, and at such rates as in the opinion of such bishop shall be sufficient to afford a competent salary to such curate; and such churchwardens are hereby empowered and required so to let the same and to raise and levy, in the manner directed by this act, the rents from the persons who may take the pews, reserving such number of sittings as free seats, as to such bishop shall appear expedient, not being less than one-fourth; provided always, that if in any parish, district parish, or place as aforesaid, any number of persons shall represent to such bishop that they are willing to provide by subscription such an annual sum as may be sufficient to afford à competent salary to a curate for the performance of such additional service with a sermon, or for the performance of such additional service with a third sermon, and if the bishop shall be of opinion that such mode of providing a salary for such curate is more expedient than the raising of such salary by pew rents, it shall be lawful for such bishop and he is hereby empowered to require the incumbent of such church or chapel to nominate a curate to him as aforesaid, and in default to appoint a curate himself: provided always, that such curate so nominated and (n) Especially preserved by 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 80. Bishops may enforce two services on Sundays in certain cases. Not to affect No spiritual person to serve more than two benefices in one day. Apportionment of duties. Bishop may where there licensed for the performance of such third service as aforesaid, shall be subject to all jurisdiction, laws, statutes, and provisions to which stipendiary curates are subject, except so far as relates to the amount of salary, and the mode of raising and paying the same, which shall be regulated according to the provisions of this act." Sect. 80 of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, enacts, "That it shall be lawful for the bishop, in his discretion, to order that there shall be two full services, each of such services, if the bishop shall so direct, to include a sermon or lecture, on every Sunday throughout the year, or any part thereof, in the church or chapel of every or any benefice within his diocese, whatever may be the annual value or the population thereof; and also in the church or chapel of every parish or chapelry, where a benefice is composed of two or more parishes or chapelries, in which there shall be a church or chapel, if the annual value of the benefice arising from that parish or chapelry shall amount to 1507., and the population of that parish or chapelry shall amount to 400 persons: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be taken to repeal or affect the provisions of an act passed in the fifty-eighth year of the reign of his majesty King George the Third, intituled " An Act for building and promoting the building of additional Churches in populous Parishes," by which the bishop of any diocese is empowered to direct the performance of a third or additional service in the several churches or chapels within his diocese under the circumstances therein mentioned." And by sect. 106, "No spiritual person shall serve more than two benefices in one day unless in case of unforeseen and pressing emergency, in which case the spiritual person who shall so have served more than two benefices shall forthwith report the circumstance to the bishop of the diocese." 2 & 3 Vict. c. 30, providing that in benefices where there are more than one spiritual person instituted to the cure of souls, the bishop may apportion the duties, has been already referred to (o). It was judicially decided for the first time in the case of direct services Bishop of Winchester v. Rugg, that it was competent to the bishop to determine in the case of one benefice with two churches, how the two services which the clerk was bound to perform on Sunday should be apportioned between the two churches (p). are two churches. (0) Pp. 480, 482, supra. (p) L. R., 2 Adm. & Eccl. 247; 2 P. C. App. 223. after the litany. Of the prayers and thanksgivings which now stand at Prayers and the end of the litany service, the first two prayers (for rain thanksgivings and fair weather) were at the end of the communion service in the book of the 2 Edw. VI. To which were added in the 5 Edw. VI. these prayers:-In the time of dearth and famine; in the time of war; and in the time of plague and sickness. The prayer to be used after any other, and the thanksgivings for rain, fair weather, plenty, and deliverance from enemies, were brought in by King James I. The prayers, in the Ember weeks, for the parliament, and for all conditions of men, were added in 1661; as were also the general thanksgiving, and the thanksgiving for public peace, and for deliverance from the plague (q). prayers taken out of the Bible. By the several acts of uniformity, the form of worship Proviso for directed in the Book of Common Prayer shall be used in psalms and the church, and no other; but with this proviso, that it shall be lawful for all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalms or prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting thereby the service, or any part thereof, mentioned in the said book (r). This is a very important legal proviso, and one not generally known. Uses. "And whereas heretofore there hath been great diversity The ancient in saying and singing in churches within this realm, some following Salisbury use, some Hereford use, and some the use of Bangor, some of York, some of Lincoln; now from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one use" (s). Salisbury Use.]-Lindwood, speaking of the use of Sarum, says, that almost the whole province of Canterbury follows this use; and adds as one reason of it, that the Bishop of Sarum is precentor in the college of bishops, and at those times when the Archbishop of Canterbury solemnly performs divine service in the presence of the college of bishops, he ought to govern the quire, by usage and ancient custom (t). Some Hereford Use.]-In the northern parts was generally observed the use of the archiepiscopal church of York; in South Wales, the use of Hereford; in North Wales, the use of Bangor; and in other places, the use of other of the principal sees, as particularly that of Lincoln (u). The rule laid down for church music in England almost Church music. |