It is no new manual, then, of Protestant devotions, to be carried out in some new-fangled way, but it contains the ordinary services of the Catholic Church, of which the Church of England is a part. In accordance with the ancient right of each national Church—even of each diocese—to frame its own ‘use’ of these Catholic rites and ceremonies, the Prayer Book hereby establishes the English Use.
3. This takes us one step farther, to the prefaces of the Prayer Book. The first of these, ‘The Preface,’ is the latest in point of time, having been written in 1661; and it is the least important, being mainly taken up with a refutation of Puritan objections. It gives excellent reasons for the last revision,[1] mentioning among other improvements those made ‘for the better direction’ of the clergy, ‘in the Calendars and Rubricks,’ which improvements, it is well known, all emphasised the Catholic character of our services. Referring to some of the Puritan proposals it incidentally repeats the claim we have already noticed in the title-page; these proposals it accuses of ‘secretly striking at some established doctrine, or laudable practice of the Church of England, or indeed of the whole Catholick Church of Christ.’
Far more important are the next two prefaces, which are taken from the First Prayer Book of 1549. The first, ‘Concerning the Service of the Church,’ is an adaptation of that to the reformed Breviary of Cardinal Quignon, which it follows in all essentials. This model, which the English Church thought the best for that of the introduction to its Book of
- ↑ It should be noticed that the first words of this Preface are generally misunderstood. ‘The phrase,’ says Bishop Barry, ‘ascribing to the Church of England “the middle way between two extremes” has become celebrated, being supposed to be a description of her general principle and policy. A glance at the context will, however, show that it refers simply to the policy adopted in the revisions of the Prayer Book,’ that is, between too much stiffness in refusing or too much readiness in admitting variations. Teacher’s Prayer Book (in loc.).
