F. S. Rising (#6): "Are There Romanizing Germs in the Prayer Book?" (36-46)

Mr. Rising makes some ancillary comments on the Catechism, noting that it is essentially sacramentalism leaving off grand truths. 18 of 25 questions concern baptism, confirmation and communion. We most certainly would add the 1662 period involved the slaughter of robust Reformed Theology by tossing the Westminster Standards. “In view of what has been thus far said, we feel constrained to affirm that 'There are Romanizing Germs in the Prayer Book.' They are embedded in our otherwise Protestant formulary. They are found in the Doctrines of the Rule of Faith, of the Ministry, of Baptism, and of the Lord’s Supper. Developed according to the fixed law of germination, they bring forth fruit after their own kind, such as: The Bible is not the sole Rule of Faith; the Ministry is an exclusive priesthood; Baptism is an instrument of regeneration; the Lord’s Supper is an expression of Consubstantiation” (38). Mr. Rising, writing in the 1860s, notes and complains of the rising Sacerdotalists, expressions of the fruitage of those embedded Romanizing germs in the Prayer Book. He further notes, “Tracing the history of the sacerdotal party, we see, without surprise, their gradual but progressive Romeward development of doctrine. The Romanizing germs first sprang up in our own Church in the form of conservative High-Churchism. The warm spring tide brought out the buds of Tractarianism. The summer called forth the blossoms of Ritualism. The autumnal season will see the full-blown flowers of Romanism” (40). From our vantage point, liberalism invaded the Anglo-Catholics blunting their advance and bringing further blight in the early 20th century, yet, these Sacerdotalists and Anglo-Termites-Romanizers still exist in the ACNA, ACC, ACA, APA, the Diocese of the Holy Cross, and in parts of the REC. They have their useful and dutiful idiots. Mr. Rising spends his closing pages pushing for his words and, in caps, AGITATION, agitation for liturgical reform. Liturgical reform to purge the Romanizing germs. Well, that never happened. And today in the CoE, most under 70 years old, have never lived with the 1662 BCP. The same can be said for TECers. Rite 2 prevails, not Rite 1 from the 1979 BCP. BOTTOMLINE: the thesis has been successfully sustained and prosecuted by Mr. Rising. And whence from here?