Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/273

 for unity, and was quite ready to stretch a point in order to secure it. But equally as a staunch churchman his personal predilections were in favour of ancient ritual and order. All his proposals as a very influential member of the revision committee were in this direction. The committee was instructed ‘to compare the prayer-book with the most antient liturgies which have been used in the church in the primitive and purest times;’ and no one was better fitted for this task than Cosin, for he was a profound liturgical scholar, and his suggestions were based on a thorough study of ancient liturgies, whose spirit as well as letter he had deeply imbibed. He possessed the now almost lost art of composing prayers after the best and most ancient models; and to him we are indebted for some of the most beautiful collects in our prayer-book, and probably for most of the alterations made. He suggested, at the revision of 1661, many further alterations, a few of which may be noticed. They are all in the direction of a greater strictness of order, or definiteness of doctrine, or supply obvious omissions. The rubric enjoining all priests and deacons to say daily the morning and evening prayer is worded more strictly. Proper psalms are suggested for the Epiphany, rogation days, St. Michael and All Angels' day, and All Saints' day. In the rubric concerning chancels the words ‘shall be divided from the body of the church’ are inserted. Instead of ‘Endue thy ministers,’ Cosin suggests ‘Let Thy priests be clothed’ with righteousness. In the rubric respecting the Litany it is added, ‘The priests (or clerks) kneeling in the midst of the quire, and all the people kneeling and answering as followeth.’ In the rubric before the Communion Service, instead of ‘the table at the communion time shall stand in the body of the church,’ &c., Cosin suggests ‘the table always standing at the upper end of the chancell (or of the church, where a chancell is wanting), and being at all times covered with a carpet of silk, shall also have a faire white linnen cloth upon it, with paten, chalice, and other decent furniture, meet for the high mysteries there to be celebrated.’ To the rubric ‘The priest standing at the north side,’ &c., is added ‘or end.’ The rubric respecting the Gospel runs: ‘And the Epistle ended, the priest (or the gospeller appointed) or a deacon that ministereth shall read the Gospel, saying first, “The Holy Gospel,” &c.; and the people all standing up shall say “Glory be to Thee, O Lord,” and at the end of the Gospel he that readeth it shall say, “Here endeth the Holy Gospel,” and the people shall answer, “Thanks be to Thee, O Lord.”’ In the prayer for the church militant the clause referring to the faithful departed is considerably amplified; and after the prayer of consecration there is a very beautiful ‘memoriall, or prayer of oblation.’ The Order of Confirmation is enlarged; and in the ‘Thanksgiving of Women’ &c. the rubric directs that ‘the woman shall, upon some Sunday or other holy-day, come decently vayled into the parish church, and at the beginning of the Communion Service shall kneele down in some convenient place appointed unto her by the minister before the holy table.’ The fact that some of Cosin's suggestions have been adopted without specific direction shows how seemly they were.

A prayer-book of 1619, with the emendations and alterations in Cosin's own handwriting, together with some further suggestions of Cosin in Sancroft's handwriting, which Canon Ornsby thinks may ‘certainly be regarded as that which was laid by him before the convocation,’ is still preserved in the library at Durham. Convocation committed to Cosin's care the preparation of a form of consecration of parish churches and chapels. The bishop drew up a form based on that of Bishop Andrewes, and used it in his own diocese; but it was not generally adopted by authority. One rubric in this consecration service is very significant, in regard of Cosin's views on the much-vexed question of the eastward position: ‘Then shall the bishop ascend towards the table of the Lord, and then kneele downe at his falstoole before it,’ &c.

The convocation ended, Cosin returned to Durham, and pursued that career of unwearied diligence and extraordinary munificence which left an impress upon the diocese greater, perhaps, than was made by any bishop in the kingdom. In 1662 he held a visitation both in Northumberland and Durham; and in November of the same year ‘made a fair progress through the larger part of this county palatine, preaching on every Sunday in several churches, and being received with great joy and alacrity, both of the gentry and all the people’. In the same year he held his primary visitation of the cathedral, making the fullest and most minute inquiries. The intervals of the year were filled up with visits to country churches in his own neighbourhood, preaching, catechising, and inducing parents to bring their children to baptism, which sacrament had been much neglected during ‘the troubles.’ He had always one definite object in view, viz. to have the church system fully worked, with the utmost order and the greatest beauty of ritual, and he succeeded to a marvellous