Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/419

 THE ARCHDEACON OF LIVERPOOL 367

appointment by Lord Salisbury of Canon Gore to the Bishopric of Worcester, and more particularly to its action in relation to the Royal Declaration, with a view to preventing alteration in its text and provisions. He took occasion to point out that it was proposed in certain quarters to get rid of the Declaration which the King has to make against the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the invocation, adoration and worship of the Virgin. The Declara tion, he remarked, was drawn up in the reign of Charles II., and every member of the Houses of Parliament, Lords and Commons, had to take the oath before entering Parliament at all. It occa sioned great disturbances in the time of Charles II., but when the Revolution came, the Declaration was embodied in the statement which the King has to make before he is crowned. The authorities also altered the Coronation Oath, and embodied in that for the first time a proviso that the King would maintain &quot; the Protestant Reformed religion estab lished by law.&quot; That was introduced in 1689, before William was crowned, so that the King is now pledged to maintain the laws and the pure doctrine of the Church of England and the Protestant Reformed religion as established by law, and he has also to make the solemn declaration of the renuncia tion of the doctrine of transubstantiation. This has been considered by some leading Romanists as blasphemous, so there has been an attempt made to get it altered in such a way as to satisfy the Roman

�� �