fluence, and of themselves as under him the ministers and dispensers of it. And if there are any among them with whom such motives make no impression, and the strong arm of the law is the only valid argument, the bishop is supported by acts of the legislature, and the civil sword is placed in his hands for the punishment of evil doers. And whatever considerations of this kind apply to any single bishop, they apply with increased effect to the primate, than whom we acknowledge no higher spiritual person upon earth. If then, apart from the wide range of his judicial powers, we suppose him to have taken counsel with his suffragans, and to express his opinion on a question, on which any members of the church have honestly been seeking for it, there can scarcely be desired an authority more conclusive with the parties themselves, or more closely in accordance with the primitive pattern. In a church, indeed, united with the state, such opinions are not of the nature of decrees and ordinances, and cannot be enforced by penances and excommunications; but they carry with them a moral and spiritual force, which would be decisive to all reasonable minds, and to a Christian temper would be irresistible. In selecting materials for this publication, the first object was to bring together all such documents as had at any time within the prescribed interval been possessed of full synodical authority. It may be conceived from the inexact methods of legislation and registration in earlier times, that some documents of this description may have been altogether lost, or at least have been handed down in an imperfect condition; but, if this were the case, it would only increase the desire that all such papers as are still to be obtained, should be brought into one body, and published in the precise forms which were known to be authoritative. The articles accordingly of the year 1562, furnishing one of the most remarkable examples that could have been given of the case, are taken from the printed edition of R. Wolfe, put forth with the royal authority in 1563, in preference to the original MS., which is still extant, and still bears the signatures of both houses of convocation, but was evidently corrected before the articles were ratified by the queen. And this is only one instance out of many, where a record of the convocation, the document which at first sight would seem to be conclusive, is in reality superseded by a printed copy, the latter being the earliest known record which can be shewn to have obtained full synodical authority. Doubtless there are many minds so constituted, that a decree of convocation, attested by the subscriptions of all its members, would appear to have a moral force and obligation that needs no further sanction to make it imperative; and it may readily be allowed, that such a decree, where it has not been negatived by the sovereign, either by his express condemnation, or by the mere omission of it from the authorized record, is entitled to every degree of respect and deference, short of the implicit obedience that is due to a positive law. But questions of government are not matters of private feeling or individual interpretation. It is manifest that no mere decree of convocation can be binding either in law or in conscience, whatever may be the moral force it possesses, since it has been solemnly declared by the church as well as by the state, that all such decrees are utterly invalid, until they have received the approbation of the sovereign. In this class of authoritative documents are naturally added the memorable canons of 1640, which were adopted by the convocation of that period, and obtained the sanction of king Charles I., but by the overpowering weight of circumstances have never passed into acknowledged laws of the church. The history of these canons affords one of the most remarkable instances on record of the paramount force of public opinion in its ordinary and healthy condition, when opposed to enactments, which are admitted to have been formal in their origin, but were passed at a time of disordered principles and extreme discord. Historically, however, they are entitled to a place among the documents of the church, and, besides other collateral advantages, are of considerable value in the moral lesson they inculcate. But in addition to this first and most important class of synodical records, there are other decrees of convocations, possessed of no authority whatever, but entitled to be received into a collection of ecclesiastical documents, on account of their intimate connection with the history of the church in some of its most critical periods, and the striking illustrations they afford of its character and nature. Such for example are the canons, so called, of 1606, first published under the direc tion of archbishop Sancroft, with the title of bishop Overall's Convocation book, canons, that represent the extreme views of church authority belonging to the reign of king James I. but were rejected by that sovereign with a degree of wisdom and prudence, which, among his many inconsistencies, he frequently shewed in the matters of the church, and very rarely in his general government. These canons may be considered as the ecclesiastical code of a party, always respectable and sometimes powerful, which has been raised up in the church periodically, during times of disorder and disunion, as a tempest is sometimes employed to stay the ravages of a pestilence, and may be best exemplified by the conduct of the non-jurors in the reigns of king William and queen Anne. Among the proceedings of convocations it was not always easy to determine what papers ought to be admitted and what excluded. There are many memorials and representations made by the two houses respectively, and especially at the period of their great controversy, which being merely the opinions of one member of the legislative body, are of no real authority, and have moreover no peculiar value in illustrating the history of the times. But among those proceedings there are in many instances heads or notices of legislation, which could not reasonably be omitted, whether they are regarded in their own intrinsic importance, or in the mature consideration they received from both houses of the clergy. In such cases the papers have been admitted, and their nature and value have been explained in the notes that accompany them. The proceedings themselves are for the most part copies of the abridgments published by Wilkins in his Concilia, the mere matters of form being altogether omitted, and the remainder being expressed as much as possible in the words of the original records. But in such memorable convocations as those of the year 1562, 1640 and 1661, memorable not only for the construction of the XXXIX articles, the second book of homilies, the canons of archbishop Laud, and the liturgy in its present form, but also for the fact that the registers of the upper house belonging to those periods have been singularly preserved, it has been thought right to republish the proceedings at full length from the Synodus Anglicana of bishop Gibson. The darkness, which broods generally over the annals of the church, and is most remarkable in the history of its councils, has been greatly increased by the destruction of the registers of the upper house in the great fire of London, a loss, for which the registers of the lower house make no compensation, owing to the inferiority of its powers and the limited range of its business. The deficiencies of earlier date have accordingly been supplied, as far as the case admitted, by the use of the best and most authentic editions; and in the more recent documents recourse has been had to the voluminous collections of archbishop Wake, to which free access was granted in the library at Christ church, and many additions and corrections have consequently been made, which had escaped the diligence of former collectors. Errors doubtless may have been still continued; but many others, some of which were of a serious nature, have certainly been removed. The notes were too essential to the value of the work to be treated with carelessness or compiled without discrimination. They were intended to supply a knowledge of the motives and details that constitute the living substance of history, without which the reader would in the present instance have had before him the bare skeleton of the church, considered in its jurisprudence, and have been unable to form any conjecture as to its animation or activity. The work itself completes the series of which the Editor gave notice when he sent forth his two volumes of Documentary Annals. If the object should be answered that was sought in the publication of it, it will tend to support that general sobriety of mind and principle, which, however occasionally deranged by factious men, and at convulsive periods, is among the many blessings conferred upon the nation by the reformed church of England. TABLE OF CONTENTS. ARTICLES OF RELIGION. II. Articles agreed on by the bishops, &c. in the year 1552, &c. 18. IV. Articles whereupon it was agreed, &c. in the year 1562, &c. V. Articuli de quibus convenit, &c. editi anno Dom. 1571. anno Eliz. 13.................. VI. Articles whereupon it was agreed, &c. put forth anno Dom. |