The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 3a
Canon Law, without Parliament
Canon Law, without Parliament.
Of course, had the Canon been adopted, it could not possibly have legalised what is now forbidden by Statute. In Laud's time the Canons of 1640, framed and passed by arrogant ecclesiastics in the manner it was hoped this proposed Canon would have been, were hung up for all time, as a warning to future Archbishops. "Eternal vigilance" on the part of the Laity against the encroachment of Ecclesiasticism in high places is evidently quite as necessary as in matters appertaining to our national liberties.
Six months after, in 1907, Letters of Business were issued by the Crown to Convocation, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a preliminary to the holding of Convocation, announced, in the name of the Committee of the whole House of Bishops, the appointment of five Bishops to act as three sub-committees; the first, with the Bishop of Salisbury for its chairman, to draft a memorandum in regard to the ornaments; the second, presided over by the Archbishop in person, to suggest the "course of procedure in regard to the laws concerning public worship and the ornaments;" and a third, under the Bishop of St. Albans, to present a draft "Showing what changes, if any, ought to be suggested in the Prayer-Book generally."