THE ORNA MENTS RUBRIC.
[To THE-EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1• Stn,—There can be no doubt, as my friend the.Dean. of Wells has pointed out, that the Prayer-Book of 1549 is the guide by which the rubric of 1662 is to be interpreted. .But we know,— (1), That the list of garments to be used at the Holy Com- munion prescribed by that book was circumscribed by the subsequent book of -1552; (2), that the Act of 1 Elizabeth, c. 2, recalled attention to the former list, and authorised the (temporary) use of the ornaments therein- allowed, until the Queen, with due advice, should take further order. Many persons think that this order was duly taken in 1564: but while on that point I wish to express no opinion, I wish now, by your permission, to place .before your readers the fact brought under my notice by my own examination . of the documents now existing in the Record Office, which concern the commis- thou issued in the last year of Edward VI. for gathering up the remaining spoils of churches throughout England.
I should not venture to trouble you with this, but that I have not seen elsewhere any mention of the results of the inquiry as regards my own county of Hereford. The results of other counties have been published, but not, I think, of Herefordshire, which seem to me to present some features differing, so far as I have seen, from those in the accounts which have been published. What do we find ? (1.) That the Commissioners were men shown by their names to have been of high standing in the county. (2.) That at the time of the issuing of the Commission, they and those who commissioned them must have been fully aware of the rule laid down in the book of 1552. But what is their course of proceeding ? They find in many churches vestments of various materials, some of them very costly—satin, silk, velvet, brocade, &c.—and what is their order respecting them ? In many instances, not less than between twenty and thirty, they order that these vestments shall be, not sold or destroyed, but reserved for the use of the parish, generally, in order to make a cope. That is, at the same time that the Prayer-Book rubric orders the use by ministers of a surplice only, the Royal Commissioners direct in Herefordshire not only that copes shall be retained, but that new ones shall be made out of old materials.
It is well known that Herefordshire had the reputation of being a " Popishly affected" county, both then and for many years later ; but whether this latitude in usage was given for this reason, I cannot say. All that I can say is, that in this case a latitude in the interpretation of the law appears to have been permitted, not tacitly only, but officially,—a latitude resembling the permission in the existing Preface to the Prayer-Book of appeal in doubtful cases to the Bishop of the diocese. May I not add that some instruction is to be gathered from this piece of history, of which use might be made at the present time P—I am, Sir, &c.,
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