Ritual Conformity Part 14

270. Then shall follow the Lesson taken out of the fifteenth Chapter of the former Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians.

271. When they come to the Grave, while the Corpse is made ready to be laid into the earth, the Priest shall say, or the Priest and Clerks shall sing: Man that is born, &c.

In the Prayer-Book of 1549 the casting the earth upon the body was directed to be done by the Priest, with the words, 'I commend thy soul to G.o.d the Father Almighty.' This action was transferred from the Priest to 'some standing by,' when those words were omitted in 1552. The present rubric seems to direct that any one else is to perform the act. If done, as it usually is, by the Parish Clerk, or other inferior Church official, there is more dignity in it than if done by an unofficial person.

If there is a celebration of Holy Communion at the time of a burial, it is a separate service, and the celebrant must remember that the use of any Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, except the one for the day, is very difficult to justify as being in accordance with the rubrics of either service. See Rubric 6.

272. Then, while the earth shall be cast upon the Body by some standing by, the Priest shall say, Forasmuch as it hath, &c.

273. Then shall be said or sung, I heard a voice, &c.

274. Then the Priest shall say. Lord, have mercy, &c.

THE THANKSGIVING OF WOMEN AFTER CHILD-BIRTH,

COMMONLY CALLED, THE CHURCHING OF WOMEN.

275. The Woman, at the usual time after her Delivery, shall come into the Church decently apparelled, and there shall kneel down in some convenient place, as hath been accustomed, or as the Ordinary shall direct: And then the Priest shall say unto her, Forasmuch, &c.

By the direction that the woman should be decently apparelled, it was originally meant that she should be veiled. This was part of the general practice of her being (in the words of the Bishops at the Savoy Conference), 'perspicuous to the whole congregation.' And although the custom of veiling cannot be revived, yet its principle of marking the individual should be borne in mind in the arrangement of the Service, as e.g. placing the woman in a special place.

The convenient or proper place in which the woman was to kneel, was 'near the church door' in the ancient English use, 'near the choir door' in the Prayer-Book of 1549, 'nigh unto the place where the Table standeth' in the book of 1552. The words 'as hath been accustomed' refer to the one of these usages which has survived, and been adhered to, in any old church. The place at the altar rails was approved by the Bishops at the Savoy Conference, in regard of the offering she is there to make. The Priest, in all cases, should stand by her--i.e. near to, and in front of, her.

He is to say to her the Address and the Psalm. The congregation should not join in the latter. Care must be taken not to replace from an ordinary Psalter the verses omitted from the 116th Psalm.

In cases where the new-born child has died, it is better to use the 116th Psalm.

276. (Then shall the Priest say the cxvith Psalm,)

277. Or _Psalm cxxvii_.

278. Then the Priest shall say,

Let us pray. Lord, have mercy, &c.

The Priest may at this point properly turn to look eastward.

279. The Woman, that cometh to give her Thanks, must offer accustomed Offerings; and, if there be a Communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion.

The Service is intentionally concluded without a blessing, which it is wrong to insert. The suggestion of the woman's receiving the Holy Communion is aided by the incompleteness of the Service ending abruptly with the Thanksgiving.

With regard to the time of the Service, there is no express direction, provided that a congregation may be reasonably expected.

The offering of the woman is connected with her receiving the Holy Communion, and should be made in that Service, if she comes to it.

In all cases, it is well that it should be formally received by the Priest or an a.s.sistant, in an alms-bag or bason, and presented by the Priest on the Altar.

It is to be observed that no mention is made of the condition of the woman, as being in wedlock or not. When it was objected at the Savoy Conference that some profession of humiliation ought to be required of an unmarried or profligate woman before she was admitted to the privilege of thanksgiving, the Bishops replied, "that such a woman should do her penance before she was churched."

If the Priest, therefore, be privately cognizant of the penance of such a woman, he is bound to admit her to the Service, without requiring public profession of her humiliation.

Without such cognizance he could hardly admit such a woman to a Service which expressly implies access to Communion.

A COMMINATION,

OR DENOUNCING OF G.o.d'S ANGER AND JUDGEMENTS

AGAINST SINNERS,

_With certain Prayers to be used on the First Day of Lent, and at other Times, as the Ordinary shall appoint_.

280. After Morning Prayer, the Litany ended according to the accustomed manner, the Priest shall, in the Reading-Pew or Pulpit, say, Brethren, &c.

The 51st Psalm is directed to be said, not 'said or sung.' Singing, therefore, appears to be excluded, as it was, in the similar place in the old English Office, by the direction to say the Psalm _sine nota_.

281. And the people shall answer and say. Amen.

282. Then shall they all kneel upon their knees, and the Priest and Clerks kneeling (in the place where they are accustomed to say the Litany) shall say this Psalm. Have mercy upon me, &c.

283. Then shall the people say this that followeth, after the Minister. Turn Thou us, &c.

284. Then the Minister alone shall say, The Lord bless us, &c.

Printed by Parker and Co., Crown Yard, Oxford.

Notes:

[a] "The Act of Uniformity is to be construed by the same rules exactly as any act pa.s.sed in the last session of Parliament. The clause in question, by which I mean the rubric in question (the Ornaments Rubric), is perfectly unambiguous in language, free from all difficulty as to construction. It therefore lets in no argument as to intention other than that which the words themselves import.

There might be a seeming difficulty in fact, because it might not be known what vestments were in use by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth; but this difficulty has been removed. It is conceded in the report that the vestments, the use of which is now condemned, were in use by authority of Parliament in that year. Having that fact, you are bound to construe the rubric as if those vestments were specifically named in it, instead of being only referred to. If an act should be pa.s.sed to-morrow that the uniform of the Guards should henceforth be such as was ordered for them by authority, and used by them in the 1st George I., you would first ascertain what that uniform was, and having ascertained it, you would not enquire into the changes which may have been made, many or few, with or without lawful authority, between the 1st George I. and the pa.s.sing of the new act. All these, from that act specifying the earlier date, would have been made wholly immaterial. It would have seemed strange, I suppose, if a commanding officer, disobeying the statute, had said in his defence, 'There have been many changes since the reign of George I., and as to "retaining," we put a gloss on that, and thought it might mean only retaining to the Queen's use; so we have put the uniforms safely in store.' But I think it would have seemed more strange to punish and mulct him severely, if he had obeyed the law and put no gloss on plain words.

"This case stands on the same principle. The rubric, indeed, seems to me to imply with some clearness that, in the long interval between Edw. VI. and the 14th Car. II., there had been many changes; but it does not stay to specify them, or distinguish between what was mere evasion, and what was lawful. It quietly pa.s.ses them all by, and goes back to _the legalized usage of the second year of Edward VI_. What had prevailed since, whether by an archbishop's gloss, by commissioners, or even statutes, whether, in short, legal or illegal, it makes quite immaterial." _Remarks on some parts of the Report of the Judicial Committee in the case of Elphinstone v.

Purchas, and on the course proper to be pursued by the Clergy in regard to it_. A Letter to the Rev. Canon Liddon from the Right Hon. J. T. Coleridge. (1871.)

[b] We gather from the Inventories and other authorities, that the word _vestment_ generally included, besides the chasuble, the stole and maniple, and the albe with its amice and girdle.

[c] "To bow reverently at 'the name of Jesus' whenever it is mentioned in any of the Church's offices; to turn towards the East when the Gloria Patri and Creeds are rehearsing; and to make obeisance at coming into and going out of Church; and at going up to, and coming down from, the altar, are all ancient and devout usages, and which thousands of good people of our own Church practise at this day, and amongst them, if he deserves to be reckoned among them, T. W.'s good friend."--_Michael Hewetson's Memorandums concerning the Consecration of the Church of Kildare, and the Ordination of his dear friend, Thomas Wilson_ [_S. Peter's'

day_, 1686], _with some Advices thereon_. Quoted in Life of Bishop Wilson, edited by the Rev. John Keble. A.-C.L., Part I. cap. i. p.

22.

"Whereas the Church is the house of G.o.d, dedicated to his holy worship, and therefore ought to mind us both of the greatnesse and goodness of his Divine Majestie, certain it is that the acknowledgement thereof not onely inwardly in our hearts, but also outwardly with our bodies, must needs be pious in itself, profitable unto us, and edifying unto others. We therefore think it very meet and behovefull, and heartily commend it to all good and well-affected people members of this Church, that they be ready to tender unto the Lord the said acknowledgement, by doing reverence and obeisance both at their coming in and going out of the said churches, chancels, or chapels, according to the most ancient custome of the Primitive Church in the purest times, and of the Church also for many yeers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth."--_The Canons of the Church of England_, 1640, No. vii.