are specified: it is to be used

with one alteration, or addition of certain Lessons
to be used on every Sunday in the year, and the form
of the Litany altered and corrected, and two sentences
only added in the delivery of the Sacrament to the
communicants.

The alterations are said to be "appointed by this
statute." I call attention to these points, because
they seem to show that Elizabeth and her Parliament
assumed the function of amending the Book, and
claimed for it a purely statutory authority. Such an
assumption is strangely inconsistent with the subsequent
actions of the Queen, and we are the more
struck by the contrast if we reflect that the Act was
introduced in the House of Commons. In 1571, when
the Commons began to stir matters of the same kind,
Elizabeth sent them more than one sharp message
forbidding them to meddle with such concerns. The
speed, moreover, with which the Bill passed the
Commons leaves little room for doubt that all was
fully prepared beforehand, the revision of the Book
completed, and the enforcement of its use alone
made matter of parliamentary debate. In the
Lords there was considerable discussion, and the
Book was roughly handled by the opposing bishops;
but the debate proceeded on the Book as a whole,
and there is no trace of any legislative action dealing
with its details. At the same time it is right to observe
that the power of Parliament to impose the Book was
challenged, and no other sanction appears to have
been contemplated. [20] The only possible conclusion
seems to be that the Book was revised by the committee
of which I have spoken, and that as very few
changes were made, no fair copy of the whole Book
was submitted to Parliament, but the alterations were,
for the purpose of reference, mentioned in the Act.
Even this was done without much precision. The
wording of the alterations is not specified. More
remarkable still is the fact that in all the printed
copies of the Book yet other alterations were imported,
by what authority is not known. It would seem that
no copy of the Prayer-book ever existed which
answered exactly to the description given in the Act
of 1559. [21] It is impossible, therefore, to say that the
form of the Book was precisely determined by authority
of Parliament. The purport of the Act was to enforce
the use of the Book in a form otherwise determined.
That form was settled, with some measure of ecclesiastical
sanction, in the time of