a I E> R.ARY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N 1 VERSITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 CROWN YARD, OXFORD.
 
 3o ^ 
 
 Xiturgtcal IDestments. 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 ADDRESSED BY PERMISSION 
 
 TO 
 
 His Grace 
 
 The Archbishop of .Canterbury 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Bishop of Chester. 
 
 SEPTEMBER, 1905. 
 
 PRICE ONE PENNY. 
 
 CHESTER : 
 Phillipson and Golder.
 
 /
 
 gitur^tjcal ge^tment 
 
 
 
 My Lord AiiCHBiSHor, 
 
 I have your Grace's permission to 
 address you upon the subject of Liturgical 
 Vestments, ihe responsibility for what 
 is said remaining of course entirely my 
 own. By some the question will be thought 
 too trivial, by others too intractable, to 
 justify expenditure upon it of time and 
 effort. It may be asked, moreover, — why 
 meddle with the matter just now when 
 it is under consideration by a Royal 
 Commission, whose Report is likely to be 
 presented a< no distant date '? To this 
 objection I reply that the effect of the 
 Commissioners' Recommendations, what- 
 ever they may be, will largely depend 
 upon the mood in which they find the 
 main body of Churchpeople, and therefore 
 an attempt to prepare the ground of 
 public opinion for receiving in an un- 
 prejudiced and co-operative spirit the 
 seed of wise counsel niay be of some 
 service. 
 
 L 
 
 That the subject of Liturgical Vest- 
 ments is in its own nature of quite 
 minor importance I profound!}^ feel and 
 readily allow. It belongs to the category 
 of things in themselves indifferent and 
 alterable, and it stands by no means in 
 the front rank of even that category. 
 As a point of Christian taste and art, 
 " the attiro which the minister of Gou is 
 by order to use at times of divine service " 
 has a legitimate but subordinate place. 
 It is "a matter of mere formaliiy," and 
 yet, for comeliness' sake, to be dealt with 
 " in a seemly and due order." It surely 
 " argueth a disproportioned mind " to 
 make too much either way of suoli a 
 detail. The essential insignificance of the 
 question becomes even painfully apparent 
 when we contrast it with tHose weightier 
 matters — social, moral and doctrinal, — 
 which concern the very life of Churches 
 
 and nations, and demand the Avhole-hearted 
 attention, the concentrated energies, of all 
 who profess and call themselves Christians, 
 and not least of our own branch of the 
 Catholic Church. It is pitiable indeed 
 that, decade after decade, the Church of 
 England should be baffled by a problem 
 of externals, w^hen opportunities and 
 responsibilities of vital importance are 
 summoning hei' to worthier w^ork. 
 
 And yet the busy spirit of Vestiarlanism, 
 or of Anti Vestiarianism (for it manifests 
 itself in either form), not content with the 
 troubles caused in earlier days by Puritan 
 objections to tiie Surplice, has reappeared 
 in o\u' own times to play its part on the 
 opposite side. Availing itself of the 
 Ornaments' rubric, in the prima facie 
 meaning of that diversely interpreted 
 direction, it assumed the grave respon- 
 sibility of reviving the use of long-obsolete 
 vestments, and thus contributed a fresh 
 apple of discord to our Church's already 
 plentiful supply. In the course of the 
 controversy which followed, the simple 
 question of dress became entangled Avith 
 reall}^ grave questions of doctrine, worship 
 and ecclesiastical law. The thing indiffer- 
 ent came to be conscientiously regarded 
 as a matter involving essentials, and 
 thus magnified, it gave abundant but not 
 very fruitful employment to Parliament 
 and the Convocations, to Law Couits and 
 Royal Commissions. The story of repressive 
 legislation, of prosecutions, of the coercive 
 policy and its failure, need not be told 
 again. 
 
 In weary reaction from that long and 
 unprofitable turmoil we have lapsed into 
 a somewhat anarchical plight. " The law 
 as at present authoritatively declarc^d is, 
 that the coi)e is to be worn in ministering 
 the holy comnuniion in cathedrals and 
 collegiate churches, and the surplice in all 
 other ministrations, and that all other 
 vestments are illegal." (Talbot, Modern 
 Decisions on Ritual, p. 117). But the
 
 I 
 
 reasoning on which this decision rests has 
 failed to convince ; and the objections 
 which had been urged against the 
 constitution of tbe Court of Final Appeal 
 itself are thought to have been justified 
 by the Ilcport of the Ecclesiastical Courts 
 Connuission (1883). With the law and 
 the Supreme Court standing thus at a 
 disadvantage, the idea of reverting to the 
 policy o*^ prosecution for disobedience 
 is entertained only by extreme Anti- 
 Vcstiarians. Incumbents and congregations 
 are in this matter unavoidably left to do 
 very nuich what is right in their own 
 eyes ; and that the vestments which have 
 been pronounced illegal are not more 
 widely introduced is due, partly, to the 
 good sense of the Clergy as a body, partly, 
 to there being no longer prosecutions to 
 exasperate, and, partly, to the restraining 
 influence of the Bishops, whose work in 
 this way has been very imperfectly 
 recognized. But, taken at its best, this 
 can hardly be deemed a creditable or 
 wholesome position of affairs, and the 
 appointment of another Roj'al Commission 
 is a testimony to that effect. 
 
 We are now aw^aiting with mingled 
 anxiety and hope the Report of this 
 Commission, and the interval, I submit, 
 may be well employed by Churchmen of 
 all schools in seriously considering what 
 is likely to happen if we prefer to remain 
 in a state of "do-nothing perplexity,"! 
 and whether any better course is open to 
 us? 
 
 If we remain where we are, one of 
 two things may come to pass. Leaving 
 our differences unsettled, we may so 
 strenuously devote ourselves to the main 
 duties of Church life, may so exercise 
 ourselves in healthy endeavours to promote 
 the Kingdom of righteousness, peace and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost, as by degrees to 
 outgrow^ oiu' disorders and disproportions, 
 thus finding the corrective for them in 
 laudable service. 
 
 Or we may have to be scourged by the 
 discipline of some calamity into a saner 
 state of Uiind. Disestablishment and 
 
 *¥-f8lt dismay at lier prospects, anger and scorn 
 at her do-nothing perplexity." — Newman's 
 A polugi a— -wvitten of the Church of England 
 as it looked to him "amid the encircling- 
 gluom" of 1833. 
 
 Disendowment,for example, or the humilia- 
 ting discovery that, while ecclesiastical 
 zealots have been disputing about non- 
 essentials, the essentials of our Faith, the 
 habit of worship, and morality itself, have 
 lost their hold upon ihe bulk of the 
 Nation, — some such chastisement as this 
 may be needed to teach us what we have 
 been so culpably slow to learn. 
 
 But is it sound policy either to count 
 upon such a liberal respite as the former 
 alternative imi)lies, or to challenge by 
 delay the infliction of some purifying 
 disaster? May there not still be open to 
 us some third course more in keeping with 
 that practical wisdom which the children 
 of light are bidden to cultivate '? 
 
 11. 
 
 Your Grace is already acquainted with 
 my convictitm that there is such a course, 
 and your wide knowledge of what is going 
 on in men's minds will, I think, bear me 
 out in claiming that, if I err, I at all 
 events err in good company. In stating 
 my view I shall avail myself largely of 
 what others have written, and at the 
 outset, a Memorial [)resented to Archbishop 
 Tait by Dean Church and others in li^lJ 
 (Tait's Life, ii., 289), will supply the central 
 idea. — 
 
 "Believing, as we do," say the Memorialists, 
 "in the presence in the Church of her Divine 
 Head, we are convinced that what is required 
 is not the mere interpretation, however skilful, 
 of existing law, but the living voice of the 
 Church clearly laying down what the law 
 shall be in the future." 
 
 Events since 1877 have surely lent 
 support to this opinion. It may now be 
 maintained with added weight of experience 
 that our real need is a new rubric (or 
 group of rubrics) which shall express the 
 living mind of the Church, constitutionally 
 ascertained and unambiguously set forth. 
 The preparation of such a rubric would 
 naturally be undertaken by the Convoca- 
 tions and Lay Houses, who, for Committee 
 work, would command the services of 
 specially qualified Clergymen and Laymen 
 representing every school of thought. 
 Assuming that their labours reach a suffi- y 
 ciently harmonious conclusion, th0 business ' 
 would be ripe for consideration by Parlia- 
 ment, and would no doubt be there dealt
 
 THE PALACE 
 
 UME5TER. 
 
 
 Oe^^ 
 
 ■.oi 
 
 fSee also (S.P.C.K.) Early Christian Worship 
 by A. J. Maclean, D.D., pp. 106-7:— 
 
 "The Canons of Hippolytus (p. 201) men- 
 tion Eucharistic Vestments. The presbyters 
 and deacons are to assemble (we read) for 
 Holy Communion with the bishop, ' clad in 
 white vestments, more beautiful than those of 
 all the people, especially splendid. But good 
 works are better than all vestments. Even 
 the readers are to have festal garments.' " 
 At the Council of Laodicea (c. 380 A.D.) 
 stoles are mentioned. But, "on the whole, 
 j the information to be gained from the latest 
 ' discoveries as to the vesture of the clergy is 
 almost nil."
 
 with ill a spirit corresponding to the temper 
 exhibited by the Synods of the Cliurch. 
 Does the procedure I am supposing ask 
 too much for, or of, the Church ? Is it 
 too sanguine in its rehance upon the 
 fairmindedness of the House of Commons ? 
 1 am confident that your Grace will forbid 
 us to despair of the State, ecclesiastical 
 or civil. 
 
 But the question that mainly concerns 
 
 us is not whether we can command 
 
 success, but how best we may deserve it. 
 
 To what model shall we look for guidance ? 
 
 What principles and precedents have the 
 
 strongest claim upon our regard 1 The 
 
 model may be found in St Paul's way of 
 
 dealing with the problems he was called 
 
 upon to solve. I avail myself of Piofessor 
 
 Sabatier's words to shew what that way 
 
 was. 
 
 " Such is the order of this first epistle (to the 
 Corinthians). In spite of the variety of ques- 
 tions touched upon, a jn-ofound unity prevails 
 throughout it. Paul's dialectical mind, instead 
 of stoj^pijig short at the surface of these par- 
 ticular questions and losinoc itself in the details 
 of a finely drawn casuistry ,alvkfays ascends from 
 facts to principles, and thus shods a fuller 
 light on all the difficulties presented to it by 
 the way. After he has carried the mind of 
 his readers up to the serene heights of 
 Christian thought, he sweeps down from this 
 elevation with irresistible force ; and each 
 solution that he suggests is simply a new 
 application of the permanent and general 
 principles of the Gospel." The Apostle Paul, 
 p. 161.) 
 
 A pattern of a dilTerent order is sup- 
 plied by the late Wharton Marriott's 
 Vestiarium ChriMianum (1868), which 
 traces " the origin and gradual develop- 
 ment of the dress of Holy Ministry in 
 the Church." Wliat the author in his 
 preface says of others may well be applied 
 to himself, and suggest a standard for 
 the work v,'hich this letter has in view : — 
 
 " I ought not to conclude wiihout saying 
 how much I owe to more than one foreign | 
 writer whose books I have laid under con- i 
 tribution. Treating though they do of 
 subjects keenly controverted for the last 300 
 years, they write in a spirit of loyal de- 
 votion to the Truth, and the Truth alone, 
 such as others differing widely from them in 
 doctrinal prepossessions, may well desire to 
 imitate. In saying this, I refer particularly \ 
 1o Dr. Hefele, and the Chevalier Do Kossi, 
 from both of whom I have learnt much, and , 
 hope to_learn much more." 
 
 i 
 
 It is to be regretted that this admirable j 
 
 treatise, so scholarly, comprehensive and j 
 
 /temperate, should now be so hard to j 
 
 obtain. Could S.P.C.K. do anything to 
 promote the knowledge of this rare piece 
 of Christian research ? The Society lias 
 recently done good work in translating 
 Mgr. Duchesne's Origines dii culte Ckre- 
 titn, whicli contains a valuable chapter 
 on Liturgical Vestments, t The following 
 extracts will give some idea of Mr. 
 Marriott's method and main conclusions. 
 
 "Dividing the history of the Church, for 
 the purposes of this inquiry, into three 
 l)eriods, we may regard the first, or Primi- 
 tive Period, as exteu'ling to the close of the 
 four first centuries. The second, or Transi- 
 ti(m Period, as of 400 years more, to the close 
 of the 8th century. The third period may be 
 considered as extending to the present time, 
 but as subdivided, in respect of the Churches 
 of the West, by the Reformation. 
 
 In the Primitive Period, of about 400 years, 
 the dress of Christian Ministry was in form, 
 in shape, in distinctive name, identical with 
 the dress worn by persons of condition, on 
 occasions of joyous festival, or solemn cere- 
 monial. And this was a dress wliich in such- 
 wise differed from the Habit of every-day life, 
 and of ordinary wear, that it was marked out 
 plainly in the eyes of all as a garb proper to 
 occasions of religious worship, and of solemn 
 assembly in the presence of God. 
 
 In the centuries that have elapsed since the 
 (;1osc of that first Period, modifications of the 
 Primitive type, and additions to it, have 
 been made from time to time. These modi- 
 fications Und additions have varied in degree, 
 and in kind, in various branches of the 
 Church. And when traced (as they admit of 
 being traced) to their causes, they are found 
 to reflect faithfully important changes 
 th)ough which such churches have passed, 
 either inwardly, by reason of innovations 
 upon Primitive Doctrine, or outwardly 
 through vicissitudes of political position. . . . 
 When, after the revival of ancient learning, 
 the Church of England reformed her faith 
 and her discipline, upon the authority of 
 Holy Scripture and the model of the Primitive 
 Cliurch, considerable clianges were made 
 among ourselves in that Mediaeval and 
 Roman type of dress. And the result has 
 been that the customary ministering dress of 
 the English clergy during the last 300 years, 
 (i.e., the full, flowing surplice, with scarf or 
 stole) has been in colour and general appear- 
 ance, though not in name, all but exactly 
 identical wit.h that which we find assigned 
 to the Apostles in the earliest naonuments of 
 Christendom, and which, upon similar evi- 
 dence, we shall find reason to conclude was, 
 in point of fact, the dress of Christian Min- 
 istry in the primitive ages of the Church." 
 
 (Introduction, pp. iii., v). 
 
 And, again, 
 
 " On a review of the whole evidence from 
 early literature bearing upon this question, 
 we shall conclude, without doubt, that the 
 dress appropriate to the most solemn offices 
 of holy ministry, during the primitive age, 
 was white.
 
 And if we turn next to the monumental 
 evidence, whether in the frescoes of the 
 Roman Catacombs, or in the mosaics of early 
 churches at Rome, Ravenna, Constantinople, 
 we shall find that it confirms in the strongest 
 manner the conclusion, which by a separate 
 path we liave already i-eached. 
 
 And lastly, I may add, that the traditions 
 of the Church, both in literature and in art, 
 for nearly 1000 years after the primitive 
 period, bear witness incidentally to the 
 same conclusion. Again and again, even in 
 mediiBval writers, do we find recognition of 
 white vestments as being the proj^er garb of 
 Christian ttiinistr3\ And in tbe latei* art 
 monuments exhibited in this volume, it will 
 be seen, that the dress attributed to the 
 Apostles in the frescoes of the Roman Cata- 
 combs, and in early nifinuments of the East, 
 is reproduced century after century as their 
 special characteristic, long after the general 
 type of ministering dress had been altogether 
 changed. On every ground, then, we may 
 accept without hesitation a conclusion, in 
 which all the best authorities on the subject 
 are agreed ; and hold that white was the 
 colour appropriated in jDrimitive times to the 
 dress of Christian ministry." 
 
 (pp. xxxiii — iv). 
 
 These extracts will bring to mind 
 Hooker's defence of the Surplice against 
 the Puritan objectors who tried to "wring- 
 out of Jerome and Chrysostom that which 
 their words will not gladly yield. ^' 
 
 " They both speak of the same per-ons, 
 namely, the Clergy ; and of their weed at the 
 Fame time, when they administer the blessed 
 Sacrament ; and of the .'•e'.f-same kind of weed, 
 a white g'aruient, so far as we have wit to con- 
 ceive The honesty, dignity, and 
 
 estimation of white apparel in the eastern part 
 cf the world is a token of greater fitness for 
 this sacred use, wherein it were not convenient 
 that anything basely thought of shou.ld be 
 suffered"" (E. P. v. xxix., 3). 
 
 What pure and sublime associations of 
 idea belong in the symbolism of the New 
 Testament to white as a colour, and 
 especially to " white robes," " fine linen, 
 white and clean," it would be superfluous 
 to shew. But, having regard to those 
 sublime associations, and to the evidence 
 reprcented by the quotations 1 have given, 
 may it not be said that the instiuct of our 
 Church was not far wrong, when for nearly 
 SOOycars after the Reformation — in spite of 
 the Ornaments' Rubric,the Advertisements, 
 and the 24th Canon of 1604, which plainly 
 requires "Copes to be worn in C'alhedral 
 Churches by those that administer the Com- 
 munion " — the surplice was almost every- 
 where and always adopted as the vestment 
 ..^ihiiu which none comelier could be found 
 for even the highest act of Christian wor- 
 ship? In Hooker's glowing words — 
 
 " It suiteth so fitly with that lightsome 
 affection of joy, wherein God delighteth 
 
 when His Saints praise him ; and so lively 
 resembleth the glory of the Saints in heaven, 
 together with the beauty wherein Angels have 
 appeared unto men, that they whicli are to 
 appear for men in the presence of God as 
 Angels, if they were left to the'r own choice 
 and would choose any, could not easily devise 
 a garment of more decency for such a 
 service." (v. xxix., 5.) 
 
 During this period the cope seems to 
 have been almost entirely out of use, ex- 
 cept in the modified form of the Episcopal 
 chimerc, (black or, in the convocation 
 robes, red,)f which allows the primitive 
 i white vesture, as represented by the rochet 
 with its ample sleeves of fine Hnen, to be 
 fairly conspicuous. Authorities seem 
 agreed that cope, chasuble, and cliimere 
 find their common origin in the all- 
 enveloping and cowled or hooded cloak, 
 which was worn out-of-doors towards the 
 beginning of our era. 1'his garment w^as 
 gradually invested with a sacred character; 
 it was enriched in material and with em- 
 broidery, and took different shapes to suit 
 different uses. Its ampler form as the 
 cope is more suitable for processions and 
 such purposes, while in its reduced 
 dimensions, as the chimere or the chasuide, 
 it is more convenient for ministration, 
 es[)ecially in the Communion. Whether — 
 considering its secular origin and lack of 
 Scrij)tnral associations, as compared with 
 the vestment it more or less hides — such 
 a super vestment is a gain, I w411 not now 
 argue. But, hovv'ever we may eventually 
 decide for ourselves, the concluding words of 
 the Prayer Book Preface, "Of Ceremonies," 
 will hold good : — 
 
 " In these our doings we condemn no other 
 Nations, nor prescribe any thing but to our 
 own people only : For we think it convenient 
 that every Country should use such Cere- 
 monies as they shall think best to the setti''g 
 fortli of G<*d's honour and glory, and to the 
 reducing of the people to a most perfect and 
 godly living, without error or superstition ; 
 and that they should put away other thing-s, 
 which fiom tin e to time they jierceive to be 
 most abused, as in men's ordinances it often 
 chanceth diversly in divers;.coun tries." 
 
 One good result that may be looked for 
 from a candid enquiry into this whole 
 subject is that the connection between 
 certain vestments and certain doctrines 
 will be exhibited in the light of history, 
 and w^e shall be enabled to judge how far 
 that connecti(5n is radical or superficial. 
 
 t See Vestiariiun Christianum^ p. 226, note; and'i 
 Archbishop Benson's The Cathedral, p. 46,:, 
 note.
 
 It will be remembered how, in the Lam- 
 beth Judgment of 1890, Archbishop Ben- 
 son and his learned assessors, dispelled 
 misconceptions on either side about the 
 Eastward position. 
 
 " The imputed sacrificial aspect of tl e 
 Eastward position is new and forced, and can 
 take no effect in renderings that position either 
 desirable on the one side, or illegal on the 
 other." 
 
 It is too true that those misconceptions 
 still linger mischievously on, but they have 
 lost much of their vitality and are doomed 
 to disappear. It may be that a correspond- 
 ing service will be rendered by the process 
 I am advocating, as regards Liturgical 
 Vestments and their doctrinal significance, 
 real or supposed. 
 
 Once more, this problem of the dress 
 of Holy Ministry, involving as it does a 
 certain use of decorative Art, leads up to 
 the question. Within v.diat limits, and 
 for what purposes, may the power of 
 externals — may Art in its higher and 
 subordinate branches, be legitimately em- 
 ployed in Christian worship 1 and to 
 the further question which has been 
 elaborately and sjaiipathetically dealt with 
 by Bishop Westcott in his Commentary 
 on the Epistles of St John, What is the 
 relation of Christianity to Art ? As 
 regards the former question, among the 
 noteworthy things that have been written 
 on the subject, 1 may perhaps select for 
 reference what was said 70 years ago by 
 Frederic Myers in his Catholic Thou(/hts, 
 Book i., ch. xvi. ; ii., ch. xxv. A typical 
 extract may be given. — 
 
 " True it is that the spiritual is not the 
 mere absence of the visible : it is not the 
 mere negation of the sensuous. Nor is Art 
 necessarily a hindrance, but rather sometimes 
 a help, to Worship. The Fine Arts would 
 seem to be addressed to the higher p?rts of 
 our nature chiefly, and to derive their main 
 significance from them : and certainly if they 
 should be found unto edification by any or by 
 all there is nothing in the opinions of these 
 Pages which would oppose their use. It is 
 only here suggested, that to think and feel 
 by the help of the senses is not an object 
 encouraged by Christianity. It may perhaps 
 be a part of that wisdom which the Christian 
 is to borrow from the Serpent, to endeavour 
 to turn those Arts which the world esteems 
 so highly in its own service to the promotion 
 of religion which it loves so little : certainly 
 the Idea of Christianity subjugating all tilings 
 unto itself — of Christians s-poiling the world 
 as Israel the Egyptians — is a grand Idea which 
 ^ may be attempted to be realised within certain 
 ; limits. But though it may be a glory to be- 
 ' lieve that Christ's religion can thus sanctify 
 Slo all human pursuits and appropriate to itself 
 
 the best sympathies of our nature, yet it is 
 
 contended that these things must be kept 
 subordinate, and that it is not by direct 
 appeals to the weaker and more sensuous 
 emotions that Christianity essays to sanctify 
 or subdue the heart. He who knew what was 
 in man, and the subtle connexion between 
 body and soul, seems to have taught us by 
 His silence and the absence of His own ex- 
 ample and that of His commissioned Twelve, 
 that it is really inexpedient though seeming 
 wise, to think of bribing the senses in order 
 to gain possession of the spirit." 
 
 IIL 
 
 On the whole, it seems obvious that in 
 a National Church, reasonable room 
 should be provided for different tastes and 
 temperaments, for those two classes of 
 mind, which may be variously described 
 as Platonist and Aristotelian, imaginative 
 and historical, Catholic and Puritan, 
 {esthetic and uneesthetic. These we shall 
 probably have always with us, and neither 
 should l3e permitted to oppress the other. 
 A maximum and a minimu7n in matters 
 Vestiarian and in other respects might 
 well be allowed, and the methods employed 
 to procure observance of the conditions 
 thus laid down should, as far as possil)le, 
 be parental rather than coercive. But it 
 should, I submit, be clearly understood 
 and steadily maintained that the maximiim 
 is quantitative, not necessarily qualitative ; 
 that extermris belong essentially to what 
 St Paul terms 'the elements of the 
 world' — to those rudimentary lessons of 
 outward things, which, as regards their 
 spiritual effect, are comparatively ' weak 
 and poor,' — whose sphere is the miuidane 
 and the sensuous, — which, as a system, 
 represent an earlier stage in the spiritual 
 education of mankind, and large reliance 
 upon which is inconsistent with Christian 
 maturity, f If comparisons must be made, 
 
 t See Bishop Lightfoot on Galatians, iv., 3, 9, and 
 Colossians, ii., 8, 20 ; and also Hebrews, ix., 10. 
 See also Bishop Cotterill, The Genesis of the 
 Church, 535-8. On p. 538, helwrites :— 
 
 ' ' The Mosaical ceremonies were ' elements 
 of the world,' suited for the childhood of 
 God's sons, not for their manhood. As chil- 
 dren and illiterate persons are instructed by 
 pictures and signs, unsuited for educated men, 
 at all events, if used in excess, likely to ob- 
 scure knowledge rather than to advance it, — 
 so the Mosaical law taught its lessons by 
 multiplied rites and ceremonies. But for the 
 Church to teach its lessons by such a method 
 would be to return to a lower sphere, and to 
 keep God's sons in a state of childishness, 
 instead of bringing them on to maturity. In 
 this therefore discretion and judgment are 
 needed to determine what is suitable, and 
 what is not suitable, for manhood in Christ."
 
 8 
 
 a grave and simple comeliness, "neither 
 too mean, nor yet too gay/' f in the outward 
 aids and adornments of Divine Service, is 
 better entitled to the ejuthet "high" 
 than is an elaborate and exuberant mode 
 of worship. Its catholicity is of the more 
 ]>rimitive type. 
 
 I have now rough-hewn a plan which 
 others will, I trust, bring into shape with 
 more skilful and effective strokes. It 
 rests upon the conviction that, through 
 the constitutional action of the Convoca- 
 tions and of Parliament, the living Church 
 ought to lay down clearly and consider- 
 ately what the law shall be in the future. 1 
 
 t George Herbert. The BrUish Church. 
 
 cannot but think that this is the sound 
 way of dealing with our Vestiarian 
 problem, and it may be found applicable, 
 mutatis mutandis, to other problems 
 as well. ^I'o ask your Grace to express 
 any opinion about it would, under 
 present circumstances, be quite unreason- 
 able. But I venture to hope that, when 
 you come to read this Letter, you may be 
 of opinion (if I may detach these words 
 from their famous context) "that it is not 
 so clear a case that there is nothing in it." 
 
 I remain, my Lord Archbishop, 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 F. J. CESTR: 
 
 Sept. 2>rd, 1905.