Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

ous,) the Holy Eucharist was celebrated in England until the year 1547, the first of king Edward VI. Their origin cannot be attributed merely to man's ingenuity and learning, or even piety; but they are to be traced, as has been very briefly shewn, through the Sacramentaries of Gregory and Gelasius and Leo, to the wellspring of all Christian truth, the age of the Apostles.

8

In March, 1548, a Form was drawn up to be used in the distribution of the consecrated elements, at Communion. By this there was to be no alteration made in the old services, although a very significant hint was given of the intention of the King's advisers; but after the priest had himself communicated, he was to exhort the people to a worthy partaking with him, in almost the words which we still use; beginning, "Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye, coming to this holy communion, must consider what St. Paul writeth to the Corinthians," &c. This was to be followed by a charge to all open sinners to withdraw, and the invitation (as at present) "You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, &c. :" after which (also very nearly as we have them now) a confession, and absolution, and the comfortable words, and the prayer of humble access; and then the Body and the Blood were given, with these words: "The body

The first Rubric relating to the distribution is sufficiently important to be given at length. "The time of the communion shall be immediately after that the Priest himself hath received the sacrament, without the varying of any other rite or ceremony in the mass, (until other Order shall be provided) but as heretofore usually the Priest hath done with the sacrament of the body, to prepare, bless, and consecrate so much as will serve the people; so it shall continue

still after the same manner and form, save that he shall bless and consecrate the biggest chalice, or some fair and convenient cup or cups full of wine, with some water put unto it; and that day not drink it up all himself, but taking one only sup or draught, leave the rest upon the altar covered, and turn to them that are disposed to be partakers of the communion, and shall thus exhort them as followeth : Dearly beloved in the Lord," &c.

of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body unto everlasting life :" and, "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy soul to everlasting life." Having received, the people were dismissed with a Blessing."

Doubtless this was a good order of communion so far as it restored the Cup once more to the laity; and the letter of the privy council to the Bishops, which accompanied it, truly said, "that according to the first institution and use of the primitive Church, the most holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, should be distributed to the people under the kinds of bread and wine." 10 This indeed is a fact which

9 The whole form is in Wilkins. Concil. iv. 11. And at the end of the two Common Prayer Books of Edward the Sixth, reprinted by Dr. Cardwell.

It may not be amiss to remark that the necessity of some revision of the Service-Books and Rituals, was about this time generally acknowledged throughout the western Church and steps, not only in England, were taken to reduce the numerous variations of particular Uses, to a greater uniformity. See upon this, the Preface to the modern Breviary and Missal of the Church of Rome: and compare, Gerbert. De Cantu. tom. ii. 175, etc. Gavantus. Thesaurus. tom. ii. p. 13. Indeed so great a stress was laid upon uniformity, that although consideration was had of a prescription of 200 years, yet if the revised Roman Use was once admitted, there was no change to be allowed again. "Usus Missalis, et Breviarii Romani semel introductus

in aliqua ecclesia, quæ habebat par-
ticulare Missale et Breviarium, con-
firmandus est, nec licet redire ad
usum antiqui Missalis, et Brevia-
rii."
Sac. Rit. Congr. 15. Martii.
1608. Gavant. i. 564.

10 A Proclamation was attached to the Order of Communion, which referred to the decision which the Parliament, in the first Act passed in this reign, had come to upon this subject. The words of the Act are, "Forasmoche as it is more agreeable, both to the first institution of the saied Sacramente,and also more conformable to the commō use and practise bothe of the Apostles, and of the primative Churche, by the space of five hundreth yeres, and more, after Christes ascention, that the saied blessed Sacramente should be ministred to al Christian people under bothe the kindes of bread and wine, then under the fourme of bread onelie." Grafton's "Statutes made in the first yere of Edw. 6th. &c." This Act

the most learned supporters. of the practice of communion under one kind only do not attempt to deny to use the words of Cardinal Bona: "semper enim, et ubique ab Ecclesiæ primordiis usque ad sæculum XII. sub specie panis et vini communicarunt fideles."11 No change could be therefore so justifiable, so necessary, as that which afteran interruption of some three hundred years, restored the undoubted practice of twelve hundred years, and of the age of the Apostles: and which moreover, faithfully relying upon the command of our Blessed Lord, cut short all disputes upon a question which involves very terrible consequences, viz. how far communion under one kind only is communion at all.

Again, this order of communion was a most praiseworthy step towards a revival of the liturgy in " a tongue understanded of the people." I do not deny that stronger reasons have been produced by many authors for the sufferance, it cannot be put upon higher grounds, of a dead or foreign language in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, than ever have been, or can be alleged for the denial of the Cup: but these avail not in those cases, where liturgies are adapted by learned men, and under the guidance and authority of national Churches, to the gradual changes which, as time goes on, must take

ordered the Communion in both kinds to be given, when desired, to every person: and that the Priest should make "a godlie exhortació, wherein shalbe foorther expressed the benefeicte and coumfort promised to them, which woorthelie receive the holie Sacrament, and daungier and indignacion of God threatened to them, whiche shall presume to receive the same unwoorthelie, to the ende that every manne maie trie and examine his owne conscience before he shal re

ceive the same." Whatever may be said about disobedience to the Form soon after published, it is scarcely to be supposed, that many priests paid attention to an order merely of the parliament; and interpolated an extemporary exhortation into the authorized Use to which they had been accustomed, and whose rubrics they were canonically bound to observe.

11 Rerum Liturg. lib. ii. cap. xviij. §. 1.

place in the vulgar tongue. Hence, it may remain a question, whether we do not too hastily now-a-days, translate our Common Prayer Book, at least the more solemn parts of it, those I mean relating to the due administration of the sacraments, into the languages of heathen people, which we do not ourselves fully understand? One thing is unhappily most certain: an easy door is opened for designing men, to intrude their own heretical opinions. Secure from almost the possibility of detection, innumerable errors may be foisted in, and the ̧ most important doctrines of the Faith perverted, under the apparent sanction of the Catholic Church of England herself; the truth of regeneration in Baptism be denied, or of the communion of the Body and Blood of our Blessed Saviour in the Holy Eucharist. Thus we may give in name only and not indeed the Common Prayer Book of the church of England, to some newconverted nation in their own tongue; and blindly by her authority plant in most pestilent heresies, which even succeeding centuries may not be able to eradicate.

And to such a reason would I refer the instance which has been more than once appealed to, as shewing an inconsistency in the practice of the church of England; (especially within the last few years, by one of the most eminent living writers of the Roman communion in this country :)12 namely, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the observance of the Common Prayer Book was made obligatory upon the Irish people, although as yet it had not been translated into their language. Heylin says,13 "that no care was taken:" this is a mere assumption: and as a fact, the first edition in Irish was published very early in the reign of James the First, in 1609 and there might have been, as doubtless there were, many

12 Dr. Rock. Hierurgia. vol. i. p. 319.

13 Heylin. Hist. of the Reformation. p. 128.

better reasons for enforcing the reformed service and offices of the church of England, than for hastily attempting the very difficult task of a translation of them into the vulgar tongue. But this is neither the time nor the place for me to do more than allude to this most important subject.

The evil which must follow a stubborn, because unnecessary, adhesion to the use of a dead tongue in the public offices of the Church, is not unacknowledged by several writers of the Roman communion. Thus Gerbert, whilst he dares not perhaps go so far as to own the necessity of translations, yet complains of the consequence in the case of those who, though ignorant of the language, are bound by their rules to recite the Office daily. "Dolendum vero est, illud deinceps penitus cessasse studium, ita ut hodie moniales nec quidquam intelligant, quid psallant, contra Apostoli monitum et adhortationem."14 Extracts from earlier authors have been collected by Cassander,15 to which I would refer the reader: particularly directing his attention to one, Billet in Summa, who, speaking of the abuse in persisting in the observance of a dead language in his day, concludes: "Videtur ergo potius esse tacendum, quam psallendum; potius silendum, quam tripudiandum."

Nevertheless serious objections lay against this order of 1548, not the least of which was that a custom very far from primitive was continued; viz. that either those who intended to communicate were not required or expected to be present during the Holy Service, or that having once confessed and received absolution, they should again confess and be absolved. It must be remembered that the point before us now is, the distribution to the communicants during the celebration of the service.

De Cantu. tom. ii. p. 202.

15 Opera. p. 86. Liturgica. cap. xxxvi.

« PoprzedniaDalej »