"3

1575, passed by both Houses, and published by the Queen's authority, all licenses then in force were again recalled, and a fresh issue made. By the Orders of Convocation, 1586, every Minister having cure, and being under the degrees of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Law, and not licensed to be a public Preacher," was ordered to "provide a Bible and Bullinger's Decads in Latin or English, and a paper book, and every day read over one chapter of the Holy Scriptures, and note the principal contents thereof briefly in his paper book, and every week read over one Sermon in the said Decads, and note likewise the chief matters therein contained in the said paper, and once in every quarter show his said note to some Preacher near adjoining, to be assigned for that purpose." "12 Masters of Arts and Bachelors of Law having cure and not having a faculty to preach, if within six months after admonition by their Ordinary they did not duly obtain one, were "tied to the said exercises until they were found meet, and licensed to be Preachers.' The restraint on preaching which was thought necessary in Elizabeth's reign was continued under her successor. The Canons of 1604 decree "that no person whatsoever, not examined and approved by the Bishop of the Diocese, or not licensed [by the Archbishop or Bishop or by one of the two Universities] for a sufficient or convenient Preacher, shall take upon him to expound in his own cure or elsewhere any scripture or matter of doctrine, but shall only study to read plainly and aptly (without glossing or adding) the Homilies already set forth, or hereafter to be published."5 The same code orders strange Preachers to show their licenses to the Minister and Churchwardens, and to write their name (with date) and the name of the Bishop who licensed them, in a book to be provided for that purpose. In this reign Bishops permitted their Chancellors, Officials, and Commissaries to license Preachers, but the practice was forbidden by the King in 1622. In the Canons of 1640 it is provided that in patents given to Chancellors, etc., the Bishops reserve to themselves "the power of institution unto benefices, as also of giving licenses to preach or keep school."8 Similarly at the Restoration the King, in certain directions concerning Preachers, prohibited the grant of licenses "by any Chancellor, Official, Commissary, or other secular person, who are presumed not to be so competent judges in matters of this

1 Synod. p. 136.

4 Can. 36.

7 Doc. Ann. vol. ii. p. 203.

2 Ibid. p. 562.

5 Can. 49.

8 Can. xi.; Syn. p. 409.

3 Ibid. p. 563, 4. 6 Cann. 50, 2.

nature."1 In 1706 Johnson intimates that "the occasion of those Canons" which forbade Ministers not Preachers to expound, and obliged them to procure monthly sermons, was now taken away," on which account the " Bishops did wholly and justly forbear to put that [prohibitory] Canon in execution, and every Priest was permitted to preach at least in his own cure, as he might and ought to do by the old Canon Law, by the Charge given him at his ordination, and by the very nature of his office."2 Archdeacon Sharp, A.D. 1744, conceived that the modern usage rests on "a general tacit dispensation of all or most of the Ordinaries in the kingdom with one accord, and, as it were, with one voice agreeing (a particular case, perhaps, or two excepted) to a relaxation, or rather a temporary suspension, of all those Canon laws about licenses for preaching;" and he mentions several reasons which lead him to regard this dispensation or suspension as "highly justifiable."3

SECTION V.-The English Homilies.

THE HOMILIES.]—The First Book of Homilies was published on the 31st of July 1547, before the Injunctions of the same year, and nearly two years before the First Book of Common Prayer. At the end was a note, containing a proImise of more :- "Hereafter shall follow Sermons of Fasting, Praying, Almsdeeds, etc." A Rubric in 1 B. E. refers to the new book in this manner:- "After the Creed ended shall follow the Sermon or Homily, or some portion of one of the Homilies, as they shall be hereafter divided." A second edition appeared in August 1549, a few months after the publication of 1 B. E. In this the Homilies were divided as they are now, and the Rubric of 1552 accordingly omitted the reference to division, but it refers, like the present, to Homilies "hereafter to be set forth by [common] authority." It is probable indeed that the promised Second Book of Homilies was at that time in course of preparation, and that its publication was delayed by the King's death. The Prayer-Book and Injunctions of Elizabeth repeat the order

1 Doc. Ann. vol. ii. p. 309.

2 Vade Mecum, vol. i. p. 48, 3rd ed.

3 On the Rubrics and Canons, Disc. ix. p. 195.

4 This is still printed at the end of the First Book.

5 The title-page tells us that they are "newly imprinted in Parts, according as is mentioned in the Book of Common Prayers," which clause was retained in the edition of 1560. See Strype's Parker, B. ii. c. 3, p. 85. He is wrong in speaking of that edition as the second.

6 Inj. xxvi. Doc. Ann. vol. i. p. 224.

and the reference to future Homilies; while the Bishops' "Interpretations" of the latter suggest that "Homilies be made of those arguments which be showed in the Book of Homilies [i.e. enumerated in the note cited above], or others of some convenient arguments, as of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of the common prayer to be in English, that every particular Church may alter and change the public rites and ceremonies of their Church, keeping the substance of the faith inviolably, with such like; and that these be divided to be made by the Bishops, every Bishop two, and the Bishop of London to have four." This "Second Part of Homilies," or Second Book," as it is styled in the 35th Article of Religion, appeared in 1562. The last Sermon, against Wilful Rebellion,2 was added in 1571. From the fact that the Canons of 1604, and the Rubric of 1662, still speak of "the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be published," it may be inferred that these two Books of Homilies were not then considered final.

The Homilies on Salvation, Faith, and Good Works are ascribed to Cranmer, those on the Misery of all Mankind, and on Christian Love and Charity, to Bonner and his Chaplain, that on Adultery to Becon, and that against Contention and Brawling to Latimer. Two of the Homilies in the Second Book, viz., those for Good Friday and Easter Day, are taken from Taverner's Postils ;5 but none of them can be traced to their author with any certainty. Jewell is said to have had a great share in the work of compiling them. "The revising and finishing" of the Book of Homilies, "with a Second Part," is also ascribed by Strype to Parker "and the other Bishops." The Preface to the two Parts, when they appeared together in 1562, was written by Bishop Cox.8

With regard to the authority of the Homilies, the 35th Article affirms that they "contain a godly and wholesome

1 Inj. xxvi. Doc. Ann. vol. i. p. 237, note.

2 Compare the Articles of Religion 1562 and 1571 (Synod. pp. 70, 104; Art. 35) with the Constitutions of the latter year, -Curabunt ut . . . Sacræ Homiliæ, atque Homiliæ quæ nuper scriptæ sunt contra Rebellionem, sint in singulis Ecclesiis.—Ibid. p. 123. 3 Can. 49.

4 Short's Church History, § 412, Note; Stephens on the B. C. P. vol. ii. p. 1163; Hardwick, Hist. of Reform. ch. iv. p. 211, note.

5 See Cardwell's Taverner, pp. 173, 189.

• Burnet on the Articles, Pref. p. ix.; Lond. 1837.

7 Life of Parker, B. ii. c. 13, p. 128.

8 Strype's Annals, vol. i. c. xxx. p. 346. Strype gives "the rough draught transcribed from his (Cox's) own hand.” For this and other useful references I am indebted to Mr. Tomlinson.

doctrine, and necessary for these times," i.e. for the latter half of the sixteenth century. Those who sign the Article must therefore believe that their general teaching is good and pious, and that their controversial parts were usefully directed against the errors of that period. This belief is of course compatible with a knowledge of the existence of blemishes in them. It seems, observes Cosin, "that the author of the Homilies wrote them in haste, and the Church did wisely to reserve this authority of correcting them, and setting forth others, for they have many scapes in them in special, though they contain in general many wholesome lessons for the people, in which sense our Ministers do subscribe unto them, and in no other."1

SECTION VI. Of the earlier Use of Homilies prepared by others.

The custom of delivering Homilies composed by another may be traced from a very early period down to the time of the Reformation. S. Augustine, A.D. 396, speaks as if it were a common practice in his day:-" There are some in truth who have a good delivery, but have not ability to compose what they are to deliver. But if they borrow from others what is eloquently and wisely written, and commit it to memory, and produce it to the people,-supposing their office such, they are not acting dishonestly." He points out the advantage of many being thus brought under the same sound teaching, and argues that if the Preacher lives up to the doctrine which he preaches, so that no false profession is implied, he makes it his own :- "Verbum Dei non est ab eis alienum, qui obtemperant ei." Isidores of Pelusium, 412, composed a Homily to be delivered by his friend Dorotheus, whose praise he declines, when the preacher congratulated him on the applause with which it had been received. S. Cyril of Alexandria, his contemporary, is said by Gennadius1 to have "composed very many Homilies, which, adds that author (A.D. 495), are committed to memory by the Greek Bishops for delivery." The same author relates that Salvian of Marseilles, whom he styles "the Master of Bishops," made "many Homilies for Bishops,"5 that is, for their use in preaching. Some of the Dictiones Sacræ of Ennodius, Bishop of Ticino, 511, appear on the face of them to have been

1 Works, vol. v. p. 93. To similar effect Bingham, The French Church's Apology, B. ii. c. xi. Burnet on Art. 35, p. 492.

2 De Doctr. Christ. L. iv. § 62, tom. iii. col. 118.

3 Epp. L. iii. E. ccclxxxii. ed. Possin. p. 403.

4 De Vir. Illustr. c. lvii. in Fabric. Bibloth. Eccl. p. 27.

5 As in last note, c. lxvii. p. 31.

preached by some other than the author, as might be inferred also from the titles prefixed :-"Sent to Honoratus, Bishop of Novara, at the Dedication of the Basilica of the Apostles;" "Given to Stephanus. . . to be pronounced by Maximus the Bishop;" "sent to Maximus the Bishop [to be pronounced] at a Dedication." 1 The Second Council of Vaison, A.D. 529, ordered that if the Presbyter was unable to preach from sickness, "the Homilies of the Holy Fathers should be recited by the Deacons." So Cæsarius of Arles, who died in 542, is said to have composed Homilies, which the Bishops "in France, in the Gauls, in Italy also, and in Spain, etc.," to whom he sent them, might cause to be preached in their Churches. It seems indeed to have been quite a recognised practice in France, even when illness or old age did not incapacitate the preacher. Thus in the Expositio Brevis of S. Germanus, 555, after speaking of the Prophecy, Epistle, and Gospel, the author proceeds to the Sermon:-"But the Homilies of the Saints, which are read, are put in the place of the preaching only, that whatever precept the Prophet, etc., has given, this the Doctor, or Pastor of the Church, may expound with clearer utterance." Near the close of the eighth century, Paul the Deacon, at the instance of Charlemagne, compiled a series of Homilies for all the Festivals, from the Fathers, for the use of the French clergy,5 to which the Emperor prefixed an Epistle. In 813 the Council of Rheims, under the same Prince, ordered the Bishops to "preach Sermons and Homilies of the Holy Fathers, according to the [dialectic] peculiarity of language [in their dioceses], so that all might understand." In the same year the Third Council of Tours' ordained that "every Bishop should have Homilies containing needful admonitions for the use of those under them, and that each should endeavour to translate the said Homilies clearly into the rustic Roman or German tongue, so that all might more easily understand the things spoken." The early English Church had similarly a collection of Homilies in Anglo-Saxon proper for every season, partly composed, but chiefly compiled, by Elfric, probably the Archbishop of York from 1023 to 1051.

1 Dict. ii. iii. iv. pp. 470, 3, 6.

2 Can. ii. Labb. tom. iv. col. 1670.

3 Vita, L. i. a Cypriano, c. 31; Acta, S. O. Bened. tom. i. p. 645.

4 Martene, L. i. c. iv. Art. xii.

5 They are extant, and several editions have been printed, the earliest at Spires, 1482. The preface by Charlemagne may be seen in Mabillon's Analecta Vetera, p. 73, ed. 1723.

6 Can. xv. Labb. tom. vii. col. 1253.

7 Can. xvii. ibid. col. 1259.

8 See the Preface to Mr. Thorpe's edition of the Homilies of the A. S. Church (Lond. 1844), and Ælfric's own Prefaces to each Book.