the rubrics daily disregarded with impunity by
others who trod the easy path of neglect. In 1873 a declaration against
sacramental confession received the assent of the bishops, and in 1874
Archbishop Tait of Canterbury introduced a bill for enforcing the law on
the ritualist clergy; it was transformed in committee, and was enacted
as the Public Worship Regulation Act. It provided for the appointment of
a new judge in place of the old ecclesiastical judges, the officials
principal, of the two provinces. Litigation increased, the only check on
prosecutions being the right of the bishop to veto proceedings, and in
1878-1881 four clergymen were imprisoned for disobedience to the orders
of courts against whose jurisdiction they protested. In consequence of
the scandal raised by this mode of dealing with spiritual causes, a
royal commission on ecclesiastical courts was appointed in 1881, but
its report in 1883 led to no results, and the bishops strove to mend
matters by exercising their veto. Advanced and illegal usages became
more frequent. Proceedings in respect of illegal ritual having been
instituted against Bishop King of Lincoln, the archbishop of Canterbury
(Benson) personally heard and decided the case in 1890, and his judgment
was upheld by the judicial committee (see LINCOLN JUDGMENT). The
spiritual character of the tribunal and the authority of the judgment
which sanctioned certain usages and condemned others, had a quieting
effect. Increase in ritualism, however, caused agitation in 1898, and in
1899 and 1900 the two archbishops, Temple of Canterbury and Maclagan of
York, delivered "opinions" condemning the use of incense and
processional lights, and the reservation of the consecrated elements.
Finding himself unable to put down illegal practices, Bishop Creighton
of London adopted a policy of compromise which was followed by other
bishops, and encouraged illegality. Disregard of law both in excess and
defect of ritual being common, a royal commission on ecclesiastical
discipline was appointed in 1904. The commissioners presented a
unanimous report in 1906, its chief recommendations being, briefly, that
practices significant of doctrines repugnant to those of the English
Church should be extirpated; that the convocations should prepare a new
ornaments rubric, and frame modifications in the conduct of divine
service; that the diocesan and provincial courts and the court of final
appeal should be reformed in accorda