framed by the Synod of York, held in that year under Archbishop Nevil. It is probable, however, that as the number of licensed itinerant preachers increased, this Canon became almost a dead letter, and that though the more zealous of the Parochial clergy might preach,2 they were not considered bound to do so. In Bonner's Injunctions to his clergy, 1542, there is no order for preaching; only Curates are directed to declare openly in the Pulpit, twice every quarter, to their parishioners, the "seven deadly sins and the Ten Commandments," and all Priests are charged to "take this order when they preach. They shall not rehearse no sermons made by other men within this 200 or 300 years; but when they preach, they shall take the Gospel or Epistle of the day, which they shall recite and declare to the people . . . and that done. . . every preacher shall declare the same Gospel or Epistle, or both, even from the beginning, not after his own mind, but after the mind of some Catholic Doctor allowed in this Church of England." "13 In a Rationale of Church rites drawn up about the same time, we read, as in so many similar expositions of a far earlier date:-"Divers days, the Church (after the Gospel read) pronounces with a loud voice the Creed. . . . Then follows the Offertory; from which we may infer that no sermon was then usual at that part of Divine Service. Nevertheless in the year 1536 an attempt had been made to reinforce the old rule as to the frequency, though not as to the matter, of sermons. One of the Injunctions of Cromwell, then Commissioner for Ecclesiastical affairs, orders the Clergy to "make, or cause to be made, in their Church, and every other cure they had, one sermon every quarter of the year at least."5 They were also required every Sunday and Holy-day to recite a sentence of the Lord's Prayer, or Creed, or Ten Commandments, each in their turn, and to explain them, until the people were "perfect in the same.' In 1547 the Injunction of Cromwell for a sermon every quarter was transcribed into those

1 C. i. Johns. u.s. p. 520.

"4

2 "Dr. Litchfield, Rector of All Saints, Thames Street, London [who died in 1447], left three thousand and eighty-three sermons in his own hand, and preached by him. . . . Bradly, the Suffragan Bishop of Norwich [1492], spent many years in travelling that diocese for the business of preaching; Dr. Colet [1519], Dean of S. Paul's, constantly preached or expounded the Scripture; and Dr. Colinwood, Dean of Lichfield, preached in that Cathedral every Sunday for many years together."-Collier, Eccl. Hist. P. ii. B. iii. p. 187.

3 Burnet, Hist. Ref. P. i. B. iii. Records, No. xxvi. pp. 254, 5.

Collier, Eccl. Hist. P. ii. B. iii. p. 195.

5 Burnet, P. i. B. iii. Records, No. xi. p. 179.

• Ibid. p. 178.

of Edward VI., and an order made that, when there was no Sermon, the Clergy should, "immediately after the Gospel, openly and plainly recite to their parishioners in the Pulpit the Paternoster, the Credo, and the Ten Commandments in English, to the intent the people might learn the same by heart." Another Injunction in the same code orders that "all Parsons, Vicars, and Curates shall read in their Churches every Sunday one of the Homilies which are, or shall be, set forth for the same purpose; "2 and the title of the First Book of Homilies (which was delivered with the Injunctions3 to the Bishops and others at a Royal Visitation in 1547) is, "Certain Sermons or Homilies appointed by the King's Majesty to be declared and read by all Parsons, Vicars, or Curates every Sunday in their Churches where they have cure." In January 1548 (as it appears) the Divines appointed to draw up the Order of the Communion debated (among other preliminary questions) "whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the time of the Mass to the understanding of the people being present?" Ten answers, all of assent, are on record, of which it will suffice to extract two. Bishop Bonner and others said: "I think it not necessary to have a sermon at every Mass, but the oftener the same is done to the edifying of the people (so that the service of their vocation be not thereby defrauded) the more it is to be commended." Dr. Cox:-" In the Mass-time it were convenient to have some doctrines, after the example of the Primitive Church, that at the Blessed Communion the people might be edified."

"4

The compilers of the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, whose labours (as they have come down to us) were completed in 1552, desired that in country Churches a Homily should on Feast-days form part of the Communion Office in the Morning, and that in the afternoon there should be catechising, then a Sermon, and after that Evensong. In city Churches, on Fasts and Sundays, Sermons were to be preached in the Morning, "and the Lord's Supper afterwards received;" in the afternoon there was to be a Sermon in the Cathedral Church only, or some other "convenient places," which all were to attend from the neighbouring parishes."

1 Docum. Ann. vol. i. p. 7. We find Cranmer and Ridley enforcing obedience to these orders at their Visitations; ibid. pp. 51, 90.

2 No. 32; ibid. p. 19.

3 Collier, P. ii. B. iv. p. 221; Strype's Cranmer, B. ii. c. ii. p. 148.

4 Ed. 1547, London, by Whitchurch.

5 Burnet, P. ii. B. i. Records, No. 25, n. 8, p. 144.

6 De Div. Off. cc. 12, 6, pp. 94, 90; ed. 1851.

In the reign of Mary, 1554, we find Bonner1 inquiring at his Visitation whether the Clergy "having authority to preach within their cures, did use to preach, or at the least procure other lawful and sufficient persons to do the same according to the order of this realm ?" Pole 2 in his Constitutions, 1555, merely affirmed the duty of Bishops and resident Curates to preach if licensed, ordered the punishment of those who neglected the duty, and promised that Homilies should be provided to be read on Sundays and other Festivals by those who were not competent to preach. He projected four books of Homilies, one of which was "for explaining the Epistles and Gospels."3 The Visitation Articles of Pole inquire whether any preach false doctrine, but say nothing as to the frequency of preaching.4

In 1559 it was ordered in the third Injunction of Elizabeth5 that Parsons should "preach in their Churches, and every other cure they had, one sermon every month of the year at the least." The next Injunction in the same Code, however, orders all Parsons to "preach in their own persons once in every quarter of the year at the least, one sermon on being licensed specially thereunto, or else to read some Homily prescribed to be used by the Queen's authority every Sunday at the least, unless some other preacher sufficiently licensed... chance to come to the parish for the same purpose of preaching." In a paper of "Interpretations and further Considerations drawn up by the Bishops for the better direction of the Clergy, these rules are thus explained:--"That if the Parson be able, he shall preach in his own person every month; or else shall preach by another, so that his absence be approved by the Ordinary of the Diocese, in respect of sickness, service, or study at the Universities. Nevertheless, for want of able Preachers and Parsons, to tolerate them without penalty, so they preach in their own persons, or by a learned substitute, once in every three months of the year."

In 1562 the Second Book of Homilies appeared with a preface to the two, in which "all Parsons, Vicars, Curates, and all others having spiritual cure," are charged "every Sunday and Holy-day in the year, at the ministering of the Holy Communion, or if there be no Communion ministered that day, yet after the Gospel and Creed, in such order and

1 Art. xvii. Doc. Ann. vol. i. p. 140.

2 Decr. iv. ibid. p. 184.

3 Ibid. Cardwell's note.

5 Ibid. p. 212.

4 Art. xiv. ibid. p. 204.

Doc. Ann. vol. i. p. 236, note.

place as is appointed in the Book of Common Prayer, to read and declare to their parishioners plainly and distinctly one of the said Homilies in such order as they stand in the book, except there be a Sermon." The Canons of 1575 direct that "the Homilies (where no Sermon be had) be duly read in order, as they be prescribed, every Sunday and Holy-day." 2 In 1586 certain orders introduced in Convocation by Whitgift direct the appointment of " six or seven public Preachers to preach by course every Sunday, in the parishes, within a convenient limit near adjoining to their habitations, where there is no licensed Preacher; so that there may be in every such parish one Sermon at the least every quarter;"3 the incumbent to entertain the Preacher, and to procure some one to serve his Church on that day. In 1588 the same Prelate asks at his Visitation, whether the Clergy had "monthly Sermons in their parish Church at the least, or no; and whether were the Homilies read, when there was no Sermon ?"5 By the Canons of 1604 “ every beneficed man allowed to be a Preacher" is "in his own cure, or in some other Church or Chapel, where he may conveniently, near adjoining (where no Preacher is), to preach one Sermon every Sunday of the year." If not a licensed Preacher, he is to procure Sermons to be preached in his cure once in every month at the least," and "upon every Sunday when there shall not be a Sermon preached in his cure, he or his Curate shall read some one of the Homilies." In 1636 Wren, then Bishop of Norwich, gave order that, "whereas Sermons were required by the Church of England only upon Sundays and Holy-days in the forenoon, and at Marriages, and were permitted at Burials, none should presume to take upon them to use any preaching or expounding, or to have any such lecturing at any other time, without express allowance from the Bishop." A main object of this order, we may presume, was to prevent the neglect of catechising in the afternoon.

"Under the 1st and 2d Vict. c. 106, § 80, the Bishop is expressly authorized to order two full services, with sermon,

1 P. iv.; ed. 1833.

2 Can. x. Synod. vol. i. p. 137.

3 No. vii. Synod. p. 564.

4 "The parties charged with the cures of the said parish shall bear the charge of the dinner and horse-meat of the said Preacher."-Synod. u.s. The Canons of 1571, which had the approbation of the Bishops of both Provinces, though they were not signed by the Lower House, forbid Preachers to "exact money or any reward for the Sermon; but they shall be content with food only and simple entertainment, and lodging for one night."-Synod. p. 127. See above, p. 314.

5 Art. iv. Doc. Ann. vol. ii. p. 33, see note.

No. xxiii. Doc. Ann. vol. ii. p. 257.

every Sunday, in every benefice, whatever the value; and also in any Church or Chapel of any Parish or Chapelry where a benefice comprises two or more Parishes or Chapelries, if the annual value is £150, and the population 400; and by the 58th Geo. III. c. 45, § 65, the Bishop may order a Third Service on the Sunday in any Church or Chapel where there would not otherwise be sufficient accommodation for the Parishioners, and may appoint a Curate for that purpose and provide for the payment of his stipend." 1

SECTION III. Of the Preacher in the Early Church.

I. In the early Church preaching was considered an especial, though not exclusive, function of the Bishop. Thus the Council of Laodicea (probably about 365), while prescribing the order of Divine Service, speaks as if Bishops only preached:" After the Discourses of the Bishops the Prayer of the Catechumens is to be performed."2 The Council of Valentia, A.D. 524, implies the same thing:-"We have decreed... that the Holy Gospels be read before the Illation of the Gifts in the Mass of the Catechumens, . . . in order that not the Faithful only, but the Catechumens also, and the Penitents, and all who are of a different standing, may hear the salutary precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ or the Sermons of the Bishop. For so we know for certain that some have been drawn to the faith by hearing the preaching of the Bishops." In 585, a King of the Franks exhorts the Bishops of his realm "to endeavour by frequent preaching to amend the people intrusted to them by the providence of God," adding that "the business of preaching belongs specially to them." The Council in Trullo, A.D. 691, orders that "those who preside over the Churches do every day, but especially on the Lord's Days, teach the words of religion to all the clergy and the people;" upon which Balsamon observes that "the Bishops are appointed teachers of the Churches."7

"4

3

6

II. In pursuance of this principle, when a Presbyter preached it was by commission from the Bishop, and as his deputy. In the East, the Bishop always preached, even though

1 The Clergyman's Legal Handbook, by J. M. Dale, p. 9; Lond. 1859. 2 Can. xix. Pand. tom. i. p. 461.

3 Sacerdotis, as at that period; see before, p. 184, and Ducange in v. Pontificum, Can. i. Labb. tom. iv. col. 1617.

Capit. Reg. Franc. tom. i. coll. 9, 10.

6 Can, xix. Pand. tom. i. p. 177.

7 Pand. u.s. p. 178.