CHAP. I. Express assent of the Church to a law essential. expressly adopted, as for instance, the recognition of the terms and definitions belonging to the Prayer Book, and the three orders of the ministry with their respective duties and prerogatives. Now, the General Convention of 1789, averred that it had no intention of departing in any essential point from these "forms and usages" in public worship, but it came together to consider how best to maintain them by means of a National Church. It is admitted on all hands, that the Church has full and exclusive authority over the whole subject of legislation, either in the General Convention, for general interests, or in the conventions of the dioceses, for local purposes. The sole question as to which differences of opinion exist is this: Shall the Church, in all cases, first determine for itself, whether a foreign Canon is applicable or desirable, and is its express assent necessary, in order to make such canon binding, or may somebody else decide for it in the first instance, and a canon thus be treated as binding upon the Church without its express assent, and until it has expressly dissented? The analogies of all English and American law would seem conclusively to show that the express assent of the Church is essential, in all cases, before any foreign canon can be binding upon it. The colonial churches, having neither courts nor legislatures, could manifest their assent to a canon, only by usage; while the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, having no courts or usage, can give its assent only by legislation. It is sometimes claimed that the analogy between the law of the United States and of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States is not applicable, for the reason that the state was and is simply the creature of law, while, in the Church, the bishops are the source of all canonical law, and of its administration, and that it is only by their consent that others, and especially the laity, have any share in ecclesiastical legislation or administration. CHAP. I. tion. The answer to this suggestion is, that no such Relations principle is recognized in English ecclesiastical law; to legisla of Bishops but, on the contrary, the law of England deals with bishops precisely as with clergy and laity; and before it, all are absolutely equal. In England, laymen are judges in ecclesiastical courts. Bishops are appointed by the Crown, under a mere pretense of election. Parliament enacts all ecclesiastical laws, and has done so since the year 1717 without even the concurrence of convocation; and it will hardly be claimed that Parliament derives its powers from the bishops. It is to be carefully observed, that this assertion of the exclusive jurisdiction of the General Convention over the canon law of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, does not, in the slightest degree, cut us off from the vast resources at our command, in the history and legislation of the Church in past ages, of which Judge Hoffman expresses his fear. It serves only to shield us from the caprices of individual men or parties, in selecting canons for us, and gives us, in all cases, the protection of the deliberate judgment of the whole Church, acting through its constituted authorities. CHAP. I. Summary. We have then as laws and regulations for the government of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, as follows: I. The Constitution of the Church, and the canons of the General Convention thereby authorized. 2. The constitutions and canons of the several dioceses, of force only in such dioceses, respectively; and subject to the lawful authority of the General Convention. 3. The rubrics of the Church, and in some particulars, the articles. 4. The civil laws of the states affecting the churches, and their members, in regard to corporate or personal rights, civil privileges, and the acquisition and preservation of property. 5. Such forms and usages and laws of the Church of England as have been adopted by this Church, in her constitution and canons. CHAPTER II. THE Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America was finally adopted on the 2d day of October, 1789. On the 29th day of July, 1789, a declaration was made in the Conven. tion, by the deputies, as to the powers conferred upon them in the premises, and which is thus stated in its journal: "The deputies from the several states being called upon to declare their powers, relative to the object of the following resolution of the Protestant Episcopal Church, viz.,-'Resolved, That it be recommended to the Conventions of this Church in the several states represented in this Convention, that they authorize and empower their deputies to the next General Convention, after we shall have obtained a bishop or bishops in our Church, to confirm and ratify a General Constitution, respecting both the doctrine and discipline of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America,'—gave information that they came fully authorized to ratify a Book of Common Prayer, etc., for the use of the Church." The preface to the journal of the proceedings of the General Convention, at its adjourned session beginning September 29, 1789, is as follows: C. L.-4. СНАР. 2. CHAP. 2. Objects of the Constitu tion as stated by its fram ers. "At a convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, held in Christ Church, in the city of Philadelphia, from July 28th to August 8th, 1789, upon the consideration of certain communications from the bishop and clergy of the church in Connecticut, and from the clergy in the churches of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, it was resolved to adjourn to the 29th day of September following, in order to meet the said churches, for the purpose of settling articles of union, discipline, uniformity of worship, and general government among all the churches in the United States." In the address of the members of the General Convention to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, bearing date August 8, 1789, (see Half Century of Legislation, etc., page 134), after averring their attachment to the faith and doctrine of the Church of England, and that not a wish appears to prevail among the clergy or laity of ever departing from that church in any essential article, they, among other things, say: "The business of most material consequence which hath come before us, at our present meeting, hath been an application from our sister churches in the Eastern states, expressing their earnest desire of a general union of the whole Episcopal Church in the United States, both in doctrine and discipline; and, as a primary means of such union, praying the assistance of our bishops in the consecration of a Bishop-elect for the states of Massachusetts and New |
