binding on the
laity. The chief body of English post-Reformation canon law is to be
found in the canons of 1603, amended in 1865 and 1888. The canons of
1640 are apparently upon the same footing as those of 1603;
notwithstanding objections made at the time that they were void because
convocation continued to sit after the dissolution of parliament. The
opinion of all the judges taken at the time was in favour of the
legality of this procedure. 13 Car. ii. c. 12 simply provided that these
canons should not be given statutory force by the operation of that act.

In addition to the enactment of canons (strictly so-called) the English
provincial synods since the Henrician changes have legislated--in 1570
by the enactment of the Thirty-Nine Articles, in 1661 by approving the
present Book of Common Prayer, and in 1873 by approving shorter forms of
matins and evensong.

The distinction between pre-Henrician and post-Henrician procedure lies
in the requirement, since 25 Hen. VIII., of the royal licence and
confirmation. Apparently diocesan synods may still enact valid canons
without the king's authority; but these bodies are not now called.

The prevailing legal view of the position of the Church of England in
regard to canon law has been just stated, and that is the view taken by
judicial authority for the past three centuries. On the other hand, it
is suggested by, e.g., the late Professor Maitland, that it was not, in
fact, the view taken here in the later middle ages--that in those ages
there was no theory that "reception" here was necessary to validate
papal decrees. It is said by this school of legal historians that, from
the Conquest down to Henry VIII., the Church of England was regarded by
churchmen not as in any sense as separate entity, but as two provinces
of the extra-territorial, super-national Catholic Church, and that the
pope at this period was contemplated as the _princeps_ of this Catholic
Church, whose edicts bound everywhere, as those of Augustus had bound in
the Roman empire.

It is right that this view should be stated, but it is not that of the
writer of this article.

As to _Ireland_, in a national synod of the four Irish provinces held at
Dublin before the four archbishops, in 1634, a hundred canons were
promulgated with the royal licence, containing much matter not dealt
with by similar constitutions in England. In 1711, some further canons
were promulgated (with royal licence) by another nationa