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OBJECTIONS TO THE PRAYER-BOOK. 339
The antipathy which they entertained against cope
and surplice, against the cross in baptism, against
kneeling at reception of Holy Communion, against
organs in churches, against the keeping of Saints'
days, and against the use of gowns and square caps
as their ordinary outdoor apparel, was expressed in
no measured terms, and made the subject of petition
and remonstrance addressed to the houses of convocation.
Their conduct, moreover, in celebrating
divine worship was lawless in the extreme, and had
got to such a height in 1564 that the matter was laid
before the queen, who was greatly incensed at such
insubordination, and gave directions to the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York to take measures
for the maintenance of order and uniformity, and enjoined
that none should hereafter be admitted to any
ecclesiastical preferment who refused to promise
compliance with the rules and orders laid down in
the Book of Common Prayer and authorised by the
Act of Uniformity, and obedience to the enactments
of that statute.
The bishops, as a body, were probably averse to
the use of any vestment except the surplice, and disinclined
to enforce the use, in common life,
of a distinctively
ecclesiastical dress upon the clergy ; but
they were astute enough to see that the action of the
extreme section of the reformers, if it remained unchecked,
would end in the destruction of episcopal
authority and the establishment of popular supremacy
in its place. They therefore supported the queen in
her determined resistance to the clamour which was
raised.
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