Consecration that the said Committee meet at four on Wednesday next in this place, Irish Form of with power to adjourn." (Diurni Convocat. MS., vol. ii., p. 45.) "Statuerunt Patres quod Domini quibus Forma comissa fuit com- of Churches. ponenda pro Ecclesiarum Deo Dedicatione, etc., vel tres in dicto Negotio procedant, et hora quarta promeridiana hujus Diei conveniant. Reverendi admodum Patris Corcagiensis Protestatio sive Dissensus exhibitus et perlectus fuit. May 30, 1709, I dissent to the above Order or Resolution. -Dive Corke and Rosse. Argumentorum vero ejusdem Considerationem postposuerunt Patres." (Ibid. p. 47.) The matter seems, after the manner of the English attempts, to have rested at this stage, for there is no further reference to it in the Journals. But the subject was not dropped by the promoter, Archbishop King, for in a letter to Dr. William Nicolson, Bishop of Carlisle, dated June 6, 1715, he writes:-"I have consecrated or restored nearly forty churches, and some in a crowd of Dissenters; and yet so managed the matter that they seemed very well satisfied with what was done; and, in truth, great care ought to be taken to make the form unexceptionable. We have a form in Ireland, but without any authority, and I altered it to my own mind, which I reckoned myself as a bishop empowered to do, because the canon requiring bishops to consecrate churches, but prescribing no form, leaves the form to their discretion." (Mant, Hist. of Church of Ireland, vol. ii., p. 207.) Here the Archbishop evidently alludes to the form of 1666. At the date of Sept. 8, 1718, he thus writes to Dr. John Stearne, Bishop of Clogher:-"As to the form of consecrating and restoring churches, I have finished the Preface I designed, and all the prayers, only one for the desecration of churches, which I have not yet well considered. My homily before the consecration is too long, almost as long as a sermon; and yet I cannot see how to make it shorter. I think to put it in the disjunctive, as that in the Visitation of the sick; but, to be sure, I will print nothing till I have the Archbishop of Tuam's (Dr. Edward Synge) approbation and yours, and, if advisable, that of my clergy. It is a pretty nice matter; and, as I am informed, was laid aside by the Convocation in England because they could not agree about it. Twill only be for my own diocese, and if my brethren do not like it, they may make each one for themselves.” (Ibid. p. 208.) The mention of the Preface in the above clearly identifies the writer with the author of the Resolution of the Upper House of Convocation in 1709, previously cited. Again, writing to the same prelate, Nov. 27, 1718, he further says: "I can find no copies of the forms of consecrating churches agreed on in the Convocation of England, nor indeed that they did agree on any. We had lately a letter from the Secretary in England, requiring the Government here to inquire how the forms in the last Common Prayer Book, of receiving Penitents, Consecration of Churches, etc., came to be composed, printed, and annexed to the Common Prayer Book, and by what authority used. To which we returned the best answer we could; and, after all, the annexing them to the Common Prayers appeared to be the printer's work, without any authority." (Ibid. p. 208.) The Archbishop is not Irish Form of correct in his statements about the progress of the matter in the English Consecration Convocation. For, in 1712, a Form was prepared and approved of by of Churches, both Houses, and signed by Archbishop Tenison. It was not, however, printed till 1719, when it appeared in the appendix to John Lewis' Historical Essay upon the Consecration of Churches. Since then it has been reprinted in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law (vol. i., p. 327, ed. Phillimore, Lond. 1842); and at p. 179 of Harington's Rite of Consecration of Churches. In 1715 one of the heads of business in the king's letter for Convocation was "the preparing a form for consecrating churches and chapels." A form was accordingly drawn up, which is substantially the same as that of 1712, and is to be seen in Wilkins' Concilia (vol. iv., p. 668); Cardwell's Synodalia (vol. ii., pp. 819, 825); and Harington's Essay (p. 188). The form was approved by the Bishops, and many amendments were proposed by the Lower House, but the full consideration of them was prevented-first by the death of Archbishop Tenison, and afterwards by the Hoadly business, and the form that is commonly used has never obtained Synodical authority. (Cardwell's Synodalia, vol. ii., p. 820.) In 1729 it was used by Dr. Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, and was entered in his Register, as abstracted by Oughton. (Ordo Judiciorum, vol. ii., p. 256.) And I may add that this form substantially supplies both the construction and matter of all the services which have been since drawn up for diocesan use both in England and Ireland, being much more simple and brief, and much less ceremonious, than those of Bishops Barlow, Andrewes, Laud, and Patrick, in England, and of Bishop Cosin (?) and Archbishop King, in Ireland. But as it was not seen or known by Archbishop King, it did not in the slightest degree tincture his elaborate form, which appeared the year after his above-cited letter to Bishop Stearne under this title :-Offices to be used for the Consecration of a Church new built, and Restauration of a Church rebuilt in the Diocess of Dublin: agreed to at a Synod and Visitation of the said Diocess held in the Cathedral Church of St. Patrick's, Dublin. April the 5th, 6th, and 7th, 1719. Dublin: Printed by A. Rhames, at the Back of Dick'sCoffee-House, in Skinner Row, MDCCXIX. Office for the Consecration, pp. 3-19; Office in Restauration, pp. 20-26: "A Discourse concerning the Consecration of Churches. Showing what is meant by Dedicating them, with the grounds of that Office," pp. 27-48. At pp. 49, 50 is a form of Instrumentum Publicum Conficiendum, &c., copied from antecedent forms; and lastly an Index, pp. 51-54. Copies of this form have become very rare, but they are to be found in the Libraries of Trinity College, Dublin, and of Primate Marsh, and in the Public Library of Armagh. When the work was printed, the writer sent a copy to his correspondent and counsellor, Archbishop Wake, who, in a letter dated July 16, 1719, thus acknowledges its receipt:-"I have not yet had time carefully to read over your Grace's forms of consecrating a new, and restoring a fallen church. I do not question but I shall be well satisfied with them; tho' I freely own the lesse ceremony there is in such matters, I think it the better." (Ex. Autogr.) The English form, which was drawn up when Irish Form of he was Bishop of Lincoln, and which we now use, was surely free of Consecration ceremony to his heart's content. In the year 1844, the Rev. E. C. Harington, Incumbent of St. David's, Exeter, and, I believe, now a Canon of the Cathedral there, published a very interesting volume, entitled, The Object, Importance, and Antiquity of the Rite of Consecration of Churches. (8vo. London: F. and J. Rivington.) In the following year there appeared in the British Magazine (vol. xxvii., p. 534) a short notice, in the course of which the writer observes :-" Mr. Harington does not seem to be aware of the forms sanctioned by the Irish Convocation. The writer's impression is, that he has seen two-one, which is perhaps the most remarkable of any adopted in the English Communion, used to be printed in the folio editions of the Prayer Book, printed by the King's printer in Dublin. It is well worthy of attention, if only as an indication of the character of the theology of the Irish Church at the time it was drawn up." To this Mr. Harington replied in August following:-"I very much question whether the Irish Convocation ever adopted a form of consecration of churches,' ," and then he proceeds to quote from Bp. Mant the statements of Archbishop King, as above adduced (Ibid. vol. xxviii., p. 246); which fully justified him in his modest assertion, and taken in conjunction with other evidence, both English and Irish, goes to prove that notwithstanding the longings and efforts of Convocation on both sides of the Channel, neither the Church of England nor the Church of Ireland has yet succeeded in supplying the desideratum in such a manner as to furnish the Bishop with an authoritative formula for his guidance in the performance of this important pontifical function. 'WILLIAM REEVes, D.D.' of Churches. The late Dr. Reeves, Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore, writing to the Rev. T. P. Morgan, Nov. 17, 1890, gives his latest opinion upon the origin of the Irish Consecration, Restauration, and Reconciliation of Churches Services :: "I believe the three Forms in the Irish folio Prayer Book were the compilation of Archbishop King of Dublin, one of the ablest prelates that occupied that see. "If I mistake not, the Forms in question were presented to and received some Convocational acceptance . . . our service for Consecration is extremely meagre. "WM. DOWN AND CONNOR."' N Consecration of Churches. A FORM of Consecration, or Dedication of Use of the Church of JRELAND. Irish Form of The Patron, or the Chief of the Parish where a new Church is erected, is to give timely Notice to the Bishop of the Diocess, and humbly to desire him to appoint a convenient time, some Lord's-Day, or other great Festival of the Church for Performance of the Solemnity. At the Day appointed, the Bishop, with a convenient Number of his Clergy (of which the Dean or Arch-Deacon to be one) and the Chancellor of the Diocess, and his Register shall come between the Hours of Eight and Ten in the Morning; and when they are neer, the Bell is to ring till they be entred into the Church appointed to be consecrated. ¶ First, the Bishop and his Clergy, together with the Patron or his Deputy, shall go round about the Cemetery, or Church-yards; which done, the Bishop and his Clergy shall enter into the Church at the West Door, the Patron and People standing without, while the Bishop and Priests do vest themselves in their respective Ecclesiastick Habits. ¶ When they are vested, they shall kneel down in the Body of the Church, with their Faces to the East, and say together, Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy Name; thy Kingdom come; thy Will be done in earth, as it is in heaven: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our Trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. ¶ Then the Bishop shall pray. Irish Form of Consecration Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most of Churches. gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help, that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorifie thy Name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ¶ Then rising up, they shall go together to the West Door, and the Dean or Archdeacon on one Hand, and the Chancellour on the other, shall bring the Patron to the threshold of the West Door, and present him to the Bishop; who shall thus say to him, Sir, I am come hither at your desire; I ask therefore for what intent you have desir'd my coming? The Patron shall answer; or some of the Clergy at his request and appointment, shall answer for him, [He hath] or mutatis mutandis [I have caused a House to be built for the service of God, and the publick Ministeries of Religion, and separated a burying-place for [his, or] my dead; and [his, or] my humble desire is, that it may be set apart from all common and prophane uses, and dedicated to the honour of God by your Prayers, and holy Ministeries, according to the Word of God, and the Laws and Customs of this Church. ¶ Then shall the Bishop say, Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and before it is given to God, was it not in thine own power? but when once you give it to God, it can never be recalled; but is in his propriety for ever. ¶ The Patron or his Deputy shall answer. I humbly desire he will be graciously pleased to accept it, and that it may remain his own for his service, and his honour for ever. |