Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-08-08


Archdeacon of Lincoln's opinion
that ga state Of evaporation is
the proper and normal condition in
which the affairs of the Church
should remain {? According to his
reasoning, we are never to hear the
last Of these fierce disputes as to
whether it is or is not lawful for a
clergyman to celebrate the COM
munion attired in an alb, a stole, a
chasuble, an amice, girdle and a
maniple. DR.. f. G. Lee and the
Ritualists insist on the use of such
vestments. AS for the cope--which,
if we are to believe the Ritualists,
should be worn not at the commu-
Mon, but in procession and at fu-
nerals-Dr. Lee tells us that it is
in shape an exact semi. circle, with
a border or " orphrey" on the
straight side, frequently very rich
with figures emblazoned thereupon,
and sometimes the entire vestment
is covered with diaper work. A
cope, opened ont, should be ten feet
long on the straight side, and it
should be fastened across the chest
by a clasp called a morse" FL
nally, the embroiderer is directed
to glorify this garment with "tab,
ernacSlar inches of saints or de-
vices, heraldic and symbolical."
The Romanists hold, on the other
hand, that the cope should be worn
throughout the mass by bishops
and priests, and the clasp or brooch,
which the Ritualists call a morse"
is by real Catholics termed a
billie" If matters of ecclesiasti-
cal raiment are to stand as they
have stood before, it is plain that
every clergyman may claim the
right Of wearing cope-if he is
foolish enough to wear one out of a
cathedral or a collegiate church
fashioned and bedizened entirely in
accordance with his own will or
pleasure. AS it is, the ecclesiasti-
cal man-milliners and upholsterers,
whose price-lists comprise such
ritualistic properties as chair
shirts" " and "disciplines, "are pre-
pared to furnish some very sweet
things in copes, stiff-like Millions
prose, as described by Macaulay-
with gold and embroidery; and if
every person is to have a cope of
his own, and it may please one gem
tleman to disport himself in a
damaSk table-cover spangled over
with gold and silver, while another
horrilies his congregation by ap-
pearing in a blazoned garment like
unto a san benito of the Holy In
quisition, painted saints only being
substituted for painted fiends.
Archdeacon Denison was opposed
to the enactment of a new and final
ornament rubric. That venerable
ecclesiastic evidently prefers the
estate of evaporation" to a settle
ment which would afford no loop
hole for insubordination to clerics
who are nothing if not mutinous.
Cannon Gregory again mildly ad-
vised the trial of that which is
virtually an impossible experiment.
lie suggested that "the present
practice should be kept within
reasonable bounds" BY whom
should it be so kept? 1t is pre-
cisely because the Ritualists persist
in launching into more and more
unreasonable practices in the way
of costume that moderate Protest
ants wish to see a new ornament
rubric authoritively fixed, and def
nitely abided by. The uniforms of
the army and the navy are fixed
under the queens warrant, and
sealed patterns which can in no
wise be departed from are deposited
in the proper departments. 1t
would not be tolerated that an adj
miral of the blue should appear in
a helmet, a cuirass, and jackboots,
on the plea that such was the garb
erst worn by Admiral Blake, or
that a captain in the First Life
Guards should turn out in a buff
coat and bandolier and a slouched
hat and feathers, urging that such
was tho attire worn in the year
1850 by the Earl of Marlborough.
Clerical attire, after all, is only a
kind of uniform; and what that
uniform should be ought to be
settled by act of parliament. This
Is not the opinion Of the liberal
dean Of Westminster, who consid-
ers that "our grand and majestic
prayer-book would be disfgured
by any rubrical illusions to copes
chasubles; yet a day may come
when a right reverend bishop-not
a Dean Stanley-might be called
upon to wear a cope, and might
wear it as lawfully as Bloomfield
did. In the end, Lord Alwyne
Oompton's resolution was carried,
with the omission Of the embarras-
sing word "vestments;" but the
laity are still in ignorance of the
precise kind of cope which a Prot
estant clergyman should be privi-
legod to wear.