assailed by Romanists, may be, and doubtless have been, overcome and converted by arguments which reach far short of the Roman doctrine in dispute.
It may serve as a suitable ending to this Paper, to present the reader with an account of the circumstances under which the Commemoration for the Dead was omitted from our own Liturgy, Some information on the general subject of the Primitive Commemoration will be found in No. 63 of these Tracts.
In 1548, the second year of King Edward, it was determined by the King in Council to draw up a public liturgy. "This Service Book," says Collier, (History, vol. ii. page 252,) "when confirmed in Parliament, it was supposed would effect a more general compliance. For then the pretences of defective authority in a Privy Council, would be all out of doors. To this purpose the Committee of Bishops and Divines … were ordered to attend the king on the first of September." … "This Committee of Bishops and Divines," he proceeds, "set down this (as is very well observed) for a general rule, not to change any thing for the sake of novelty. In this performance they resolved to govern themselves by the word of God and the precedent of the Primitive Church. . . . . . Their business was only to brighten what had been rusted by time, to discharge the innovations of latter ages, and bring things up to the primitive standard. To this purpose, it was very prudently agreed to make use of none but English help. When Calvin heard of the farther advances of Reformation, he offered Cranmer his assistance, but was happily refused by the Archbishop. It is true he gave Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr, two eminent divines, an invitation to our Universities; but the Liturgy, as Heylin proves, was finished before their arrival."
The compilation which was the subject of these deliberations is called the First Book of King Edward, and in it the Burial Service proceeded as follows, to use the words of the same author.
"In the office for the Burial of the Dead, when the priest throws earth upon the corpse, he says,
"I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, and thy body to the ground,' &c.
