Edward VI. What
sanction there was for the trifling changes now made
is not very clear, and possibly men were not meant
to inquire too closely.

The obscurity which veils the proceedings of 1559
does not reappear on the occasion of the next revision.
In 1660, on the restoration of the monarchy, the use of
the Book of Common Prayer, which had been forbidden
under severe penalties during the rule of the Long
Parliament and of Cromwell, revived as a matter of
course. The Ordinances of the previous eighteen
years were void in law. Indeed, the Elizabethan Act
of Uniformity remained theoretically in force. Charles,
however, in the Declaration of Breda, had intimated
in some ambiguous words that no attempt should be
made to compel conformity. [22] The presbyterian divines,
Reynolds, Calamy and others, who waited upon him
in Holland, begged him not to insist on the use of the
Prayer-book, even in his own chapel. He refused
their request, replying that

though he was bound for the present to tolerate much
disorder and undecency in the exercise of God's worship,
he would never in the least degree, by his own practice,
discountenance the good old Order of the Church, in
which he had been bred. [23]

The discussions that followed the Restoration
turned chiefly on the question of church-government,
with which I am not concerned, except so
far as to point out that until the powers of the
bishops were thoroughly re-established they were
practically unable to enforce, by spiritual censures,
the use of the prescript order of divine worship. Still
it remained as prescribed, and was gradually returning
to general use.

In October, 1660, the divines of the presbyterian
party once more approached the King with suggestions
for a settlement of uniform practice. In regard to the
Liturgy, they had no objection to a fixed form imposed
by law, provided it was not too rigorously
insisted upon; but to the forms contained in the Prayer-book
they were rootedly opposed. The King seized
the opportunity, and in his declaration of October 25
undertook to appoint a committee of divines of both
persuasions to review the Book; in the mean while,
he wrote---

Our will and pleasure is, that none be punished or
troubled for not using it, until it be reviewed, and
effectually reformed. [24]

On the 25th of March following were issued Letters
Patent for the committee thus promised. The conferences
held at the Savoy were, howev