were in orders. The book as a whole had a rationalistic tendency and was
condemned by convocation: two of the essayists were suspended by the
Court of Arches, but its judgment was reversed by the judicial
committee. Crude attacks on the authority of the Scriptures and the
position of the English Church with respect to it having been published
by Colenso, bishop of Natal, he was deposed by his metropolitan, Bishop
Gray of Cape Town, in 1863, but the judicial committee decided that the
bishop of Cape Town had no coercive jurisdiction over Natal. Convocation
declared Colenso's books erroneous, abstaining in face of this judgment
from acknowledging as valid the excommunication which Bishop Gray
pronounced against him. It followed from the decision of the council
that the English Church in a self-governing colony is a voluntary
association. Opposition to the dogmatic principle in the church was
maintained. Some practices introduced by clergy desirous of bringing the
services of the church to a higher level came before the judicial
committee in the case of _Westerton_ v. _Liddell_ in 1857, with a result
encouraging to the ritualists, as they then began to be called. An
increase in ritual usages, such as eucharistic vestments, altar lights
and incense, followed. In 1859-1860 disgraceful riots took place at St
George's-in-the-East, London, where an advanced ritual was used. In 1860
the English Church Union was formed mainly to uphold high church
doctrine and ritual, and assist clergy prosecuted for either cause, and
in 1865 the Church Association, mainly to put down such doctrine and
ritual by prosecution. A royal commission appointed in 1867 recommended
that facilities should be granted for enabling parishioners aggrieved by
ritual to gain redress, and in 1870 that a revised lectionary and a
shortened form of service should be provided. A new lectionary was
approved by the two convocations and enacted, and convocation having
received letters of business in 1872 and 1874 drew up a shortened form
of prayer which was also enacted, but the commission had no further
direct results. Between 1867 and 1871 two decisions of the judicial
committee were adverse to the ritualists, and by exciting dislike to the
court among high churchmen indirectly led to an increase in ritual
usages. Among those who adopted them were many self-devoted men; their
practices, which they believed to be incumbent on them, were condemned
as illegal, yet they saw