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."53 It was also a most praiseworthy step towards a revival of the Liturgy in "a tongue understanded of the people." Yet was it open to serious objections, 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

53 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 commo 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 ordered the Communion in both kinds to be given, when desired, to every person: and that the Priest should make " a godlie exhortaciō, wherin 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 receive the same." Whatever may be said about disobedience to the Form soon after published, it is not to be supposed or hoped, that many Priests paid attention to an order merely of the King and Parliament, and interpolated an extemporary exhortation into the authorized and Catholic Use to which they had been accustomed.

absolution, they should again confess and be absolved." I do not enter into the question which at the time of its publication excited very great remark, viz. that auricular confession was not by this Form enjoined as a necessary preparation to a worthy receiving of the Eucharist.

Neither was this Order put forth without some notice also of the intended Uniformity of service in the Church of England, and that the ancient Uses were no longer to be allowed. The letter just alluded to directs the Bishops to cause copies of this new book to be delivered as soon as might be to every parson, vicar, and curate; and

54 With regard to being present during the previous service, (I mean of the Liturgy,) there are some who argue that this is not necessary, but that a parishioner (or indeed any one) may partake of the consecrated elements, who enters the church even so late as after the distribution has commenced. I know an instance where this, not long ago, happened. But I cannot think that this is either according to ancient practice, or to the intention of the English Church. People, I conceive, who are hindered against their wills from being present at the beginning of our present Communion Office, may very properly enter at any time previous to the exhortation, "Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, &c." After this and the Confession and Absolution, (surely a portion of the Service which it is most important all communicants should be present at,) begins the more solemn part, the Anaphora, with the ancient form, "Lift up your hearts." From hence there can, I presume, be no doubt. Else how can they say that they have offered up that sacrifice, which, together with the Priest, as God's people, they have power to offer? viz. the sacrifice of praise. In the Apostolical Constitutions, people are allowed to enter the church during the previous prayers, or the reading of the lessons, or the sermon: but it is not supposed that such liberty would be taken afterwards. I would refer especially to the 58th C. of the 2nd book, where particular directions are given how honourable or poor persons are to be received who should enter up to that time. And again, to the latter part of the 11th ch. of the 8th book, where deacons are appointed to stand at the doors by the men's side, and deaconesses by the other, that no one should go out, or the door be opened, even though one of the faithful should apply for admission, during the offering of the sacrifice, κατα τον καιρον της αναφορας.”

"that this order is set forth to the intent there should be in all parts of the realm, and amongst all men, one uniform manner quietly used."

The clergy in general did not obey and use this Form : nor perhaps was it either expected that they would, or much pains taken to enforce it. Within a few months not only it, but all the old Liturgies were suppressed, and a new Order published in what is called the first Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI. entitled, "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass." I have reprinted the Liturgy of 1549 in the present volume after the Clementine: 55 and the reader will see that so long as it was authorized, the rites and prayers which have ever been held to be essential, and which had been religiously observed, since her earliest existence, in the English Church, are plainly and fully set forth and required. The Act of Uniformity declares that the Book had been completed "by the aid of the Holy Ghost,56 with one uniform agreement," i. e. of the compilers; and about a year after, another statute speaks of it in little less terms of praise, beginning, "Where the Kinges most excellent Maiestie hath of late set fourth and established by auc

55 It may appear an useless addition: because there are already so many reprints: for example, within the last few years, by Dr. Cardwell, and by Mr. Keeling. But these are parallel arrangements, not easily to be read throughout: and perhaps a better reason is, that those books may not happen to be at hand, and if they are, many readers will not take the trouble to refer to them.

56 It has been remarked, that although the Parliament judged, and rightly perhaps judged, that the Holy Ghost assisted the Bishops and Divines who composed the First Book of Edward, yet we do not find that Bucer, or Peter Martyr, or Archbishop Cranmer, pretended to any aid of the Holy Ghost in the alterations which they made afterwards.

thoritie of Parlament, an uniforme ordre of common and open praier-agreeable to thordre of the primative churche, muche more comfortable unto his loving subiectes, then other diuersitie of Seruice as heretofore of long time hath been used, being in the saied boke ordeined nothing to bee read, but the very pure worde of God, or whiche is evidentlie grounded upon the

Those, however, were not days when men would rest satisfied with merely cutting off superfluous branches, or feared to venture upon healthy limbs, nay even upon the trunk itself. It was emphatically a time of changes. During the few short years, or rather months, of the continuance of the first Book of Edward, foreign influence was actively at work, hourly increasing in pertinacious opposition to Catholic antiquity, until its successful efforts became unhappily apparent in the remodelled Common Prayer Book of 1552. The new sects at Geneva and other places earnestly desired to bring down the Church of England to the level not only of their platform of discipline, but of ritual. And it must be acknowledged that their interference was not altogether unasked: because at the recommendation of some individual in authority, the Book of 1549 had been translated into Latin, for the express purpose of obtaining the opinions of their leading men upon it.58

57 Grafton's Edit. of the Statutes of Edward VI. Fol. Lond. 1553. The Act is the 3rd and 4th Edward VI. cap. x. entitled, " An Acte for the abolishing and putting awaie of diuers bookes, and Images."

58 This is a fact very generally known; Bishop Burnet says, speaking of the first Book, "So now a review was set about. Martin Bucer was consulted in it; and Alesse, the Scotch divine, translated it into Latin for his use." This is a very uncommon book: the title is Ordinatio Ecclesiæ, seu ministerii Ecclesiastici, in florentissimo regno

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Still, in spite of all, though inverted in order, and more than half obscured, the essentials of a valid consecration are to be found even in the Liturgy of 1552 : much more then after the improvements, few though they may be, which have from time to time been made in it, by the Bishops in the reigns of Elizabeth and James and Charles, struggling to retrace their steps, and free the Church, of which they were the overseers, from the perplexities into which it had been plunged by the followers of Calvin and Zwingle.59

I would not be understood as desirous to speak ill of the Reformers of our Church. There are at present two parties who hold very different opinions of their merits : the extreme of the one would exalt them to the standard of the great Fathers of the Catholic Church, of the

Angliæ, conscripta sermone patrio, et in Latinam linguam bona fide conversa, et ad consolationem Ecclesiarum Christi, ubicunque locorum ac gentium, his tristissimis temporibus. Edita ab Alexandro Alesio Scoto Sacræ Theologiæ Doctore. Lipsia. M.D.LI." 4to. But it is not also known, (at least the Editor has never observed it mentioned, or any notice taken of the book,) that the Communion Service of 1548 was also translated, and from the initials A. A. S. D. Th. at the end, probably by Alesius, He has lately seen a copy, of which the title is, " Ordo distributionis sacramenti altaris sub utraque specie, et formula confessionis faciende in regno Angliæ. Hæc Londini evulgata sunt octavo die Martii, Anni M.D.XLVIII." At the end is a short admonition, “ Pio lectori,” in which the translator declares the great blessings which England enjoyed under Edward in the pure observance of Christianity, and excuses the title which the King claimed of Head of the Church.

59 In a remarkable letter to Bishop Skinner, in 1806, Bishop Horsley has said: "The alterations which were made in the Communion Service, as it stood in the first Book of Edward VI. to humour the Calvinists, were, in my opinion, much for the worse. Nevertheless I think our present Office is very good: our form of consecration of the elements is sufficient; I mean, that the elements are consecrated by it, and made the Body and Blood of Christ, in the sense in which our Lord Himself said the bread and wine were His Body and Blood."