Common Prayer, or administration of the Sacraments, or making of Ministers in the Churches, or of any other rites contained in the Book annexed to this Act, than is mentioned and set forth in said. book, he shall be imprisoned, etc."

Here, of course, the forms of ordaining and consecrating are obviously included under the term "rites," if they are not expressly described by other language. At all events, all the services, forms, and ceremonies set forth, are described as making one book: so that the Statute 1 Elizabeth, restoring the Book of Common Prayer, authorised by Act of Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of King Edward, obviously and clearly restored, quite regularly and legally, the Revised Forms for Ordination and Consecration previously in use.

The Revised

Ordinal formed
Book of Com

a part of the

mon Prayer as legally set forth

under King

Edward VI.

That this was so is furthermore evident from an inspection of the actual copies existing of what is known as the "Second Prayer Book of King Edward VI." Specimens of this book, though not common, are certainly not rare. They may be seen in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, the Library of Queen's College, Oxford, and elsewhere. The book was printed in 1552. The respective sheets are regularly lettered in due order on the margin below, from beginning to end. There is a Table of Contents on the back of the title-page, in which the Forms for Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating the clergy appear in their anticipated order and proper place. The printer's name duly stands on the title-page; and, at the end

of the service for consecrating a Bishop, the same name is also again printed, together with the date, in the colophon.

A reference to certain documents will prove the consecration of Bishop Horne to have taken place formally, regularly, in accordance with the existing law both of Church and State, and at a period considerably subsequent to the supposed date of the Nag's Head consecration:

Evidence for

the regular and

tion of Robert

Horne to the

Bishopric of
Winchester.

James Pilkington was first elected to the Bishopric of Winchester on Jan. 31st, 1560; but Queen Elizabeth having desired that he might go to Durham instead, a fresh Congé d'eslire was issued for the election of Robert Horne, dated May 26th [no year is given in the document itself,] which document is printed in Rymer's Fadera, vol. xv. legal Consecrap. 613. The Congé d'eslire was received by the Chapter on Dec. 4th. The certificate. to the Queen, announcing the fact of the formal election of Horne is dated Dec. 11th, and that to the Bishop-elect, informing him of his election, bears the same date. These documents are still existing in their proper place and order in the diocesan Register of Winchester. The Royal Assent to his election, and the Mandate to the Archbishop to confirm and consecrate him, are dated Feb. 12th, 1560, and can be found in Parker's Register. The confirmation took place on Feb. 15th of the same year, before Dr. Thomas Yale, Chancellor of the diocese of Canterbury, at Bow Church, John Mulleyns, or Moleyns, Archdeacon of London, -so appointed Dec. 13th, 1559, by Parker-being the proxy of the Bishop-elect, and the Consecration at Lambeth Chapel, Feb. 16th, 1560-1. Horne was

duly consecrated by "Matt. Cantuar., assistentibus Thome Young, Meneven. E'po. electo Eboracen." "Edm. London." "Tho. Lichf. et Cov."-(Vide Lambeth Register.) Horne was installed by proxy,— William Overton, Prebendary of Winchester, acting as such, in obedience to the certificate of Archbishop Parker, enjoining his enthronization, dated Feb. 17th, and of the proxy-paper of Horne himself, dated Feb. 19th (Vide Winchester Register). There is the deed of composition amongst the records of Tithes and First-fruits, still in the custody of the Master of the Rolls, of "Robertus, permissione divinâ, Winton. e'pus" for First-fruits, dated March 20th, 1560-1, by virtue of a Royal Warrant, dated two days previously, which proves that Bishop Horne had received the temporalities of the See since the previous Michaelmas.

It is gathered, therefore, from a consideration of these documents,-the most important of which are printed at length in the Appendix,*-that Robert Horne was duly, legally, and regularly consecrated on Feb. 16th, 1560-1, and did not undergo the mock form at the Nag's Head Tavern, on Sept. 9th, 1559. This latter conclusion will be readily arrived

* Vide Appendix No. XVII.

†Those who may desire to see for themselves the undoubted evidence which exists for the legal and regular consecration of other Bishops whose names are mentioned as having gone through the mock consecration at the Nag's Head Tavern, should consult Vol. III. of the Oxford Edition of The Works of John Bramhall, D.D., A.D. 1844, edited, with such painstaking care and marked ability, by the Rev. A. W. Haddan, M.A. The following exhaustive work may be also consulted:-The Story of the Ordination of our First Bishops at the Nag's Head Tavern in Cheapside, throroughly examined and proved to be a lateinvented, inconsistent, self-contradicting, and absurd Fable, etc.

By

at from a perusal of the various acts recorded in the concluding extracts from the diocesan Register of Winchester, given in the particular Appendix already referred to relating to Bishop Horne.

Thomas Browne, B.D., formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. London : 1731.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM.

BAPTISMUS est janua sacramentorum," is

of the Sacrament of Baptism. This

the door of

other Sacra

a proposition universally accepted in the Christian Church. By natural birth man acquires a position in the order of nature: by supernatural birth he obtains a place in the order of The necessity grace. This latter takes place in Baptism. By that Sacrament we are cleansed from original or birth-sin, we are made mem- ments. bers of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. This spiritual regeneration bestowed in Baptism, is absolutely necessary to salvation, as is declared by our Blessed Lord: "Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.* The term "water" in this passage has always been understood by the Church Universal in its literal sense, as may be noted from various passages in the New Testament, and from the manner in which our Blessed Saviour's Apostles fulfilled His commandment. So that the passage quoted from the Gospel according to St. John, refers directly and explicitly to the Sacrament of Baptism, which is thus declared

*Vide St. John iii. 5. Ibid. iii. 23-26. Ibid. iv. 2. St. Matthew xxviii. 19. Acts ii. 41. Ibid. viii. 36. Ibid. x. 47. Book of Common Prayer, (1) "The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants, to be used in Church." (2) "The Ministration of Private Baptism of Children in Houses." (3) "The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able to answer for themselves."