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A
Short History of
the
Roman Mass
by
Michael
Davies
Chapter
9
The Protestant
Break
with Liturgical
Tradition
The sound and invariable practice of
the Church
in the West was breached for the first time by the sixteenth-century
Protestant
Reformers. They broke with the tradition of the Church by the very fact
of initiating a drastic reform of liturgical rites, and this would
still
have been the case even had their reformed liturgies been orthodox. The
nature of their heresy was made clear not so much by what their rites
contained
as by what they omitted from the traditional books. [Emphasis
added] In 1898 the Catholic bishops of the Province of
Westminster
published a scathing denunciation of the liturgical revolution
initiated
by English Reformers, a revolution which was radically incompatible
with
the principle enunciated by Canon Smith. The Anglican claims that their
services aimed at simplicity and a return to primitive usage were dealt
with in very vigorous language. The Catholic Bishops denied the right
of
national or local churches to devise their own rites.
They
must not omit or reform anything in those forms which immemorial
tradition
has bequeathed to us. For such an immemorial usage, whether or not it
has
in the course of ages incorporated superfluous accretions, must, in the
estimation of those who believe in a Divinely guarded visible Church,
at
least have retained whatever is necessary, so that in adhering rigidly
to the rite handed down to us we can always feel secure; whereas, if we
omit or change anything, we may perhaps be abandoning just that element
which is essential. And this sound method is that which the Catholic
Church
has always followed . . . That in earlier times local churches were
permitted
to add new prayers and ceremonies is acknowledged . . . But
that
they were also permitted to subtract prayers and ceremonies in
previous
use, and even to remodel the existing rites in the most drastic manner,
is a proposition for which we know of no historical foundation,
and
which appears to us absolutely incredible. [Emphasis
added] Hence Cranmer, in taking this unprecedented course,
acted,
in our opinion, with the most inconceivable rashness. 17
 
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