s on, as
they had been wont? Yea, what tumult had we then against the order
taken by the Queen and Council, and against the Archbishop and Bishops
for consenting thereto! And, all said, what was the mighty ado about?
Why, whether a man should wear a black gown or a white. Heard one ever
such stuff?"

"Ah, _Hal_, that shall scantly serve," saith _Father_. "Mind, I pray
thee, that the question to the eyes of these men was somewhat far
otherwise. Thou wouldst not say that _Adam_ and _Eva_ were turned forth
of _Paradise_ by reason they plucked an apple?"

"But, I pray you, Sir _Aubrey_, what was the question?" saith _Mynheer_.
"For I do not well know, as I fain should."

"Look you," quoth _Father_, "in the beginning of the Book of Common
Prayer, and you shall find a rubric, that `such ornaments of the church
and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall
be retained and be in use, as were in this Church of _England_, by the
authority of Parliament, in the second year of King _Edward_ the
Sixth.'"

"But they were not retained," breaks in _Hal_, that will alway be first
to speak of aught.

(Lack-a-day! shall that cost me two pence?)

"They were not retained," repeateth _Father_, "but the clergy took to
ministering in their gowns and other common apparel, such as they ware
every day, with no manner of vestments of no sort. Whereupon, such
negligence being thought unseemly, it pleased the Queen's Majesty,
sitting in her Council, and with consent of the Archbishop and Bishops,
to issue certain injunctions for the better ordering of the Church: to
wit, that at all times of their ministration the clergy should wear a
decent white surplice, and no other vestment, nor should minister in
their common apparel as aforetime."

"Then the rubric touching the garments as worn under King _Edward_ was
done away?" saith _Mynheer_.

"Done away completely," quoth _Hal_, afore _Father_ could speak.

"But not by Parliament?" answers _Mynheer_.

"Good lack, what matter?" saith _Hal_. "The Queen's Majesty is supreme
in this Church of _England_. If she issue her injunctions through her
great Council, or her little Council, or her Bishops, they are all one,
so they be her true injunctions."

"These were issued through the Bishops," saith _Father_, "though
determined on in the Privy Council."

"Then did the ministers not obey?" asks _Mynheer_.

"Many did. But some counted the surplice a return towards