differs
from the first are of such serious moment and the general complexion
of the later work has in it such an access of Protestant coloring,
that high Anglican writers have been in the habit of attributing the
main features of the revision to the interference of the Continental
Reformers. "If it had not been for the impertinent meddling," they
have been accustomed to say, "of such foreigners as Bucer, Peter
Martyr, and John a-Lasco, we might have been enjoying at the present
day the admirable and truly Catholic devotions set forth in the
fresh morning of the Reformation, before the earth-born vapors of
theological controversy and ecclesiastical partisanship had
beclouded an otherwise fair sky." But it does not appear that there
is any solid foundation in fact for these complaints.

The natural spread of the spirit of reform among the people of the
realm, taken in connection with the changes of opinion which the
swift movement of the times necessarily engendered in the minds of
the leading divines, are of themselves quite sufficient to account
for what took place. Certainly, if the English of that day were at
all like their descendants in our time, it is in the highest degree
unlikely that they would have allowed a handful of learned refugees
to force upon them changes which their own sober judgment did not
approve.

The truth is, very little is certainly known as to the details of
what was done in the making of Edward's Second Book. Even the names
of the members of the committee intrusted with the revision are
matter of conjecture, and of the proceedings of that body no
authentic record survives. What we do possess and are in a position
to criticise is the book itself, and to a brief review of the
points in which it differs from its predecessor we will now pass.

Upon taking up the Second Book after laying down the First, one is
struck immediately with the changed look of Morning Prayer. This
is no longer called Matins, and no longer begins as before with the
Lord's Prayer. An Introduction has been prefixed to the office
consisting of a collection of sentences from Holy Scripture, all of
them of a penitential character, and besides these of an Exhortation,
a Confession, and an Absolution. There can be little doubt that this
opportunity for making public acknowledgment of sin and hearing
the declaration of God's willingness to forgive, was meant to
counterbalance the removal from the book of all reference, save