§ 86. The Articles of the Reformed Episcopal Church. A.D. 1875.
Literature.
I. Articles of Religion of the Reformed Episcopal Church, as adopted by the General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, on the 18th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1875. New York (38 Bible House), 1876. They are printed in the last section of the third volume of this work.
II. The Book of Common Prayer of the Reformed Episcopal Church. Adopted and set forth for use by the Second General Council of the said Church, held in the City of New York, May, 1874. Philadelphia (James A. Moore), 1874. (This took the place of the 'Proposed Book' of 1785, republished for provisional use in Dec., 1873.)
III. Journal of the First General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church, held in New York, Dec. 2, 1873. New York, 1873.
Journal of the Proceedings of the Second General Council of the Ref. Epis. Church, held in New York. Philadelphia, 1874.
Journal of the Proceedings of the Third General Council of the Ref. Epis. Church, held in Chicago, Illinois, May 12 to May 18, 1875. Philadelphia, 1875.
IV. Bishop George David Cummins: Primitive Episcopacy: A Return to the Old Paths of Scripture and the Early Church. A Sermon preached in Chicago, Dec. 14, 1873, at the Consecration of the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, D.D., as a, Bishop in the Ref. Epis. Church. New York, 1874.--By the same: The Lord's Table, and not the Altar. New York, 1875.
Bishop Chas. Edw. Cheney: The Evangelical Ideal of a Visible Church (a sermon). Philadelphia, 1874.
James A. Latane: Letter of Resignation to Bishop Johns of Virginia. Wheeling, Va., 1874.
Bishop W. R. Nicholson: Reasons why I became a Reformed Episcopalian. Philadelphia, 1875.
Benj. Aycrigg: Memoirs of the Ref. Epis. Church, and of the Prot. Epis. Church. N.Y., 1875; 2d ed., 1889.
Before closing this section we must notice a recent American reconstruction of the English Articles of Religion, which goes much farther than the revision of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is disowned by it, but must still be considered as an offshoot from the same root. We mean the 'Articles of Religion' set forth in 1875 by the Reformed Episcopal Church.
ORIGIN.
This body seceded from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States under the lead of the Rev. Dr. George David Cummins, Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky (d. 1876). The reason of his sudden and unexpected resignation was his dissatisfaction with High-Church ritualism and exclusiveness, and his despair of checking their progress within the regular Episcopal Church. The occasion was the manifestation of this exclusiveness in a public protest of the Bishop of the diocese of New York against the General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance in Oct., 1873, and against the interdenominational communion services, in which Bishop Cummins, together with the Dean of Canterbury (with the full approval of the Archbishop of Canterbury), had taken a prominent part [1291] He compared his conduct with the Old Catholic reaction against modern Romanism. [1292] He desired simply to organize the theology and polity of the Low-Church party on the historic basis of the American Episcopal Church itself in its initial stage, as represented by Bishop White and the first bishops of Virginia and New York. Hence his return to the 'Proposed Book' of 1785, and to the labors of the Royal Commission in 1689.
The resignation of Bishop Cummins was followed by his canonical deposition. The majority of his brethren preferred to fight the battle within the old Church, or quietly to wait for a favorable reaction, and strongly disapproved of his course. [1293] Others deprecated from principle the multiplication of denominations, and feared that the new sect might become narrower than the old. Still others, though unwilling to share the risk and responsibility, wished it well, in the hope that it might administer a wholesome rebuke to the hierarchical spirit. A small number of Low-Church clergymen and laymen followed his example. A new ecclesiastical organization, under the name of the Reformed Episcopal Church, was effected at a council held in the Young Men's Christian Association building, at New York, Dec. 2, 1873. [1294] It set forth the following