force because the vestments they order are included in the Rubric.[1] The only reason why the surplice was retained and the chasuble for so long in abeyance is that bishops thought well to enforce obedience to the law in one respect and not in the other. The Ornaments Rubric is in fact the ‘interpretation clause of the Prayer Book’. It covers all the rubrics which are to follow. Through it alone can they be obeyed.
The only point of difficulty about the Rubric is that it refers back to a certain period, instead of giving a detailed list of the ornaments and vestments to be used. Would it not have been clearer and more unmistakable, it may be objected, had such a list been given? But a very slight knowledge of English history shows that a list of this kind was not possible at any of the three occasions when the rubric was enacted. Until after the last Revision at the Restoration the idea of dissent was unknown. The Puritans were merely non-conforming churchmen, who continued to communicate at their parish churches, and were as much opposed to the idea of schism as the high churchmen themselves. Therefore every effort had to be made to allow them latitude until the fury should be over-past. The bishops found their hands full with trying to enforce the use of the surplice alone, at a time when a large number of the clergy insisted on wearing a cloak, sleeveless jacket, or horseman s coat. So the first two publications of the Rubric (1559 and 1603-4) make a less specific declaration as to vestments than as to ornaments ; and the Canons of the latter date were content with requiring copes in cathedral and collegiate churches only, their enforcement being hopelessly impossible in most parish churches. Therefore anything like a list of ornaments would have destroyed the very object for which the Rubric was inserted. Its supporters had to be content to wait for better times.
- ↑ See pp. 24 and 25.
- B
