use in cathedrals and collegiate churches, is found in the 24th and 25th Canons of 1603.
The Judicial Committee in Hebbert v. Purchas rejected the wider prescription of the dresses contained in the rubric, but reaffirmed the narrower one of the Canons; and since that judgment several distinguished prelates and dignitaries have adopted such dresses under the conditions which the Canons lay down. But the principle underlying the rubric of 1549 and the Canons of 1603 is confessedly the same, that of doing the highest material honour to Almighty God at the highest act of worship. Thus the question is reduced to a very narrow issue, not of principle, but of detail. "Does the 24th Canon contemplate a maximum or a minimum use of the given ceremonial?" At this point surely negotiation may come in; and I will only; in passing, observe that the idea that the Canon lays down a minimum is strengthened by the fact that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Canons regarding public worship only deal with Sundays, feast-days, and eves, and Litanies on Wednesdays and Fridays. It will surely not be contended that this is intended to repeal the rubric enjoining the daily recitation of morning and evening prayer either publicly, or at least privately, on the part of the clergy. The expression used respecting the Prayer Book in the 14th Canon, "without either diminishing in regard of preaching or in any other respect, or adding anything in the matter or form thereof," of course
