Untitled - Electric Scotland

i86o-68] PRIVY COUNCIL JUDGMENT 435
Dean of Arches, so far as it was in favour of Mr. Mac-
konochie. The case was again argued, Mr. Mackonochie
appearing by counsel, and on December 23, 1868, the
Privy Council reversed the Dean of Arches decision, and
declared the Altar Lights to be illegal. Bishop Tait had
a few weeks before been nominated to the Primacy, and
on December 29th, as the last act of his London Episco
pate,
he wrote to Mr. Mackonochie as follows :
The Bishop of London to the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie.
"FULHAM PALACE, 29 Dec. 1868.
"Mv DEAR MR. MACKONOCHIE, I have received from the
Privy Council Office a copy of the judgment which has now with
authority explained the law on the various points of ritual
observance in the service at St. Alban s, Holborn, respecting
which there has been so much contention. I expect that this
will be the last day of my tenure of the See of London ;
otherwise
I should have invited you, at a personal interview, to arrange
with me what is the best mode of giving effect to such changes in
with the
your service as will at once bring it into conformity
simplicity enjoined by the Rubrics, and at the same time be the
least distasteful to a congregation like yours, which has been
accustomed to a form of worship more ornate than, it is now
ascertained, the law of the Church has sanctioned. Probably
before you receive formal notification of what is now required of
you, through the proper officers of the Bishop s and Archbishop s
Court, I shall have ceased to be your Diocesan. But I will take
upon myself, as my last act in that capacity, to advise you and all
others of the London clergy who may now feel themselves placed
in a difficulty by their having conscientiously, though I believe
the advice
unwisely, thought it their duty hitherto to act against
and judgment, I believe I may say, of all the Bishops, in intro
ducing novelties of worship, to do now what I believe all the
Church principles must suggest, viz., to take counsel with those
directly set over them in the Lord as to the mode in which their
services are henceforward to be conducted in conformity with the
ascertained law of the Church.
" Some weeks must elapse before my successor has entered