Page:The Parson's Handbook - 2nd ed.djvu/38

22 of Parliament in that year. The second year of Edward. was, beyond any doubt, from Jan. 28, 1548 to Jan. 27, 1549. The First Prayer Book received the authority of Parliament in the last week of that year, Jan. 21, 1549; but the Act itself fixes the day on which it is to come in use as the Whitsunday following, June 9, 1549, or if it might be had sooner, then three weeks after a copy had been procured. So that the First Prayer Book could not possibly have been anywhere in use until some weeks (at the very earliest) after the third year of Edward. had begun; as a matter of fact the earliest edition bears the date ‘the viii daye of March, in the third yere of the reigne of our Sovereigne Lorde Kynge Edward the .’

Furthermore, the First Prayer Book makes no attempt to fix the limit as to ornaments and vestments to be used. If the Rubric refers to this Book it could not take a more uncertain standard. At the end of the Book occurs the dissertation, ‘Of Ceremonies, why some be abolished and some retained’; immediately after this dissertation comes the following heading, ‘Certain notes for the more plain explication and decent ministration of things contained in this book,’ after which come the notes as to the use of the surplice and other vestments, as to kneeling, crossing, and other gestures, as to the omission of the Litany, and of the Creed, Gloria and Homily on certain occasions. Nothing could look less like limiting the use of the old ornaments than this form of expression, ‘certain notes.’ Indeed we know from abundant evidence that the old ornaments were largely used under the First Prayer Book.