Preface. CHAPTER I. N the Admonition entitled "Concerning the Prayer, we find the following: "And whereas heretofore there hath been great diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm; some following Salisbury Use, some Hereford Use, and some the Use of Bangor, some of York, some of Lincoln; now from henceforth all the whole realm shall have but one Use." In this passage the word heretofore does not relate to the time immediately preceding the last review of the Common Prayer in 1662, for during more than 100 years, (with the exception of the period of the rebellion, and heretical ascendancy) there had been only one Use of saying and singing in Churches. We must go back to the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and beyond that again to the year 1549, when the First Book of King Edward the Sixth having been approved by Convocation, was put forth and enjoined by the authority of the Parliament and the Crown. In the Preface to that Book, there is almost word for word the same injunc tion. So, the "Act for the Uniformity of publick Prayers, and administering the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies, &c. in the Church of England," (XIV. Car. II.) begins: "Whereas in the first year of the late b |