ANGLICAN 492 ANGLICAN England to suit their extreme Protestant concep- tions. These men pronounced the ancient forms to be utterly superstitious and requiring to be replaced by others more in conformity with the simplicity of the Gospel. Hence the origin of the Edwardine Ortlinal, which, under the sanction of the Act of ISJO, was drawn up by " six prelates and six other men of the realm learned in God's law, by the King's Majesty to be appointeii and assigned ". This new rite under- went some further changes two years later, and was thus brought into the form in which it remained till the year 1662, when it was somewhat improved by the addition of clauses defining the nature of the orders imparted. As the Ordinal of 1550 had no lasting influence on the country, we may disregard it here, as we may also disregard, as of less conse- quence, the rite for the ordination of deacons. In the Ordinal of 1552 the "essential form ", that is, the form adjoined to the imposition of hands, was, in the case of the priesthood, merely this: "Receive the Holy Ghost. Whose sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven; and whose sins thou dost retain they are retained; and be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God and of His Holy Sacraments"; and these other words, whilst the Bible was being delivered, "Take thou authority to preach the Word of God and to minister the Holy Sacraments in this Con- gregation, where thou shalt be so appointed." In the case of the episcopate it was, ""Take the Holy Ghost, and remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by imposition of hands, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of soberness"; and these others, while the Bible was delivered, "Give heed unto read- ing, exhortation, and doctrine. Think upon these things contained in this book. ... Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd not a wolf; feed them, devour them not; hold up the weak, heal the sick, bind together the broken, bring again the outcast, seek the lost. ..." The additions made in 1662 were, in the case of the priesthood (after the words, " re- ceive the Holy Ghost"), "for the office and work of a priest in the Church of God now committed Unto thee by the imposition of our hands"; and in the case of the episcopate (after the words, "Take the Holy Ghost"), "for the office and work of a bishop in the Church of God now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands ". By this new Ordinal seven bishops and a number of inferior clergy were made during the last two years of Ed- ward VI. On the accession of Mary in 1553 it was discarded, and the Pontifical resumed, but on the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 its use was restored, and has continued (with the addition of the defining clauses since 1662) down to the present day. The Anglican clergy are thus the creation of this Ordinal, and, primarily, the validity of their orders is de- perident on its sufficiency — that is, on its sufficiency m its earlier form, for if that be wanting, the Apos- tolical succession must have lapsed long before 1662, and could not be resuscitated l)y the additions then made. It was on this consideration of the character of the Edwardine rite that the Holv See based its definitive decree of 1896. Still, for the complete understanding of the history of the subject it is nec- essary to know something of the circiunstances under which .Vrchbishop Parker was raised to the episcopate, and of the further defects which the Anglican suc- cession has been thought to inherit from its relation to the same. This Dr. Matthew Parker was chosen by Queen Elizabeth to be her first Archbishop of Canterbury. The metropolitan see was then vacant by the death of Cardinal Pole, and all the other sees of the kingdom, with a single exception, were vacant likewise, either because of the death of their previous occupants, or because the bishops who survived were, in the eyes of the Govenmient, deprived for refusing to conform to the new order of things. The Queen intended through Parker to raise up a new liierarchy, but a difficulty confronted her. When consecrated himself, Parker could consecrate his intended col- leagues; but how was he to get consecrated liimself? None of the CathoUc bishops still living would con- sent to perform the ceremony, and in default of them she had recourse to four ecclesiastics of no verj' high reputation, three of whom (William Barlow, John Scorj", and Miles Coverdale) had been deprived by Marj', and the fourth (John Hodgkins) was a turn- coat who had been consecrated sufTragan Bishop of Betlford in 15.37 and had consistently changed with every change of the times. To Barlow was given the lead, and he, with the others as his assist- ants, consecrated Parker, 17 December, 1559, in the private chapel at Lambeth, using the Edwardine Ordinal. Three days later Parker, with the aid of Barlow, Scory, and Hodgkins, consecrated four others at Bow Church. Erom these ancestors the whole Anglican succession is sprung. Was, then, the consecration of Parker a vahd act? This is the other ground of dispute round which, as a matter of history, the controversy has gathered. The Practice of the Holy See. — Apart from exceptional circumstances, such as arose in 1896, the Holy See does not uidulge in purely theoretical pronouncements on questions like that of Anglican Orders, but limits its intervention to cases of practical difficulty that are brought before it — as when persons or classes of persons who wish to minister at the Church's altars have imdergone ceremonies of ordina- tion outside its fold. And even in thus intervening the Holy See is chary of doctrinal decisions, but ap- phes a common-sense rule that can give practical security. Where it judges that the previous orders were certainly valid it permits their use, supposing the candidate to be acceptable; where it judges the previous orders to be certainly invalid it disregards them altogether, and enjoins a re-ordination accord- ing to its own rite; where it judges that the validity of the previous orders is doubtful, even though the doubt be slight, it forbids their use until a condi- tional ceremony of re-ordination has first been under- gone. Such a class of cases requiring its interven- tion arose when Queen Mary set to work to draw order out of the chaos in which her two predecessors had involved the affairs of the Church. What w:is to be done with those who had received Edwardine orders? The question was investigated at Rome, wliither the needful information and documents were sent by Pole, and, although we have no record of the discussion, it is clear from what has just been said about its kno'mi principles of action that the Holy See judged these orders to be invalid, for it sent directions to Pole to treat them as non-existent. That this was so appears (1) from the letters of Julius III and Paul IV, and the sense in which they were taken by Pole, for these letters direct that all recipients of Edwardine Orders shall, if acceptetl for the Church's ministry, be onlained afresh; (2) from a comparison between the Ijdwardine and Marian registers which reveals several double entries of names of persons who received first Edwariline and afterwards Catholic ordination; (3) from the course taken in punishing recalcitrant Edwartline eccle- siastics, in the ceremony of whose degradation no account was taken of their Edwardine orders. And the practice thus initiated during the reign of Mary was adhered to ever afterwanls, when Anglican clergj-mcn came over to the Catholic Churcli and sought admission into the ranks of the priesthood. A list of twenty such re-ordinations has licen gath- ered by Canon Estcourt from the " Douay Diaries" and otfiers could be gathered from the registers of the ICnglish College at Rome and other sources. Nor is the fact disputed — save perhaps as regards a few
