It is unnecessary to do more than point out that the rejection of authority in religious matters had already the consequences which any reasonable man would have prophesied for a system of religion founded upon the royal power, or, as in this case of the young King Edward, upon the personal opinions of his ministers. It is in some quarters the fashion nowadays to assume that there were no substantial changes in the Liturgy of the Church at this period, and that the Catholic Mass and the Anglican Communion service to-day are essentially and substantially the same. To any one, who will put the one by the side of the other and note the changes and omissions, it must appear as clear as the noonday sun that there is a difference, essential and substantial, depending upon doctrinal teaching, on which there should be no misunderstanding. I am not here concerned to determine whether these changes were good or bad. What I wish to make clear is that these changes were made, and that they are significant of a change in doctrine.
NOTE
COMPARISON OF THE MASS AND THE COMMUNION SERVICE
Missal | 1549 |
Sanctus Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts |
|
| [Our Lord] who made there [upon the Cross] by his one oblation once offered, a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction . . . and did institute and in his holy Gospel command us to celebrate a perpetual memory of that his precious death. [2] |
—to receive and to bless these gifts, these oblations, these holy and spotless hosts which we offer up to Thee— | —to receive these our prayers and supplications [3]— which we offer unto [3] thy Divine Majesty. |
Wherefore, we beseech Thee O Lord to be appeased by this oblation which we . . . offer | |
Vouchsafe to bless this same Oblation to take it for Thy very-own . . . so that on our behalf it may be made into the Body and Blood of J. C., etc. | Vouchsafe to bless and [3] sanctify these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the Body and Blood— |
Wherefore . . . we . . . offer up to thine Excellent. Majesty ... a Victim which is pure, a Victim which is holy, a Victim which is stainless, the holy Bread of life everlasting and the Cup of eternal salvation . . . | Wherefore... we do celebrate and make here before Thy Divine Majesty, with these Thy holy gifts the memorial which Thy Son hath willed us to make . . . desiring [thee] to accept this our Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving . . . |
| and we offer and present unto Thee ourselves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy and lively sacrifice to Thee |
Humbly we beseech Thee, Almighty God to command that by the hands of Thy Holy Angel, this our Sacrifice be uplifted to thine Altar on high | accept this our bounden duty and service and command these our prayers and supplications by the ministry of Thy Holy Angels to be brought up into Thy holy Tabernacle [4] |
[1] Blessed is he who cometh, etc., left out in 1552 and subsequent recensions.
[2] This is still found in the Communion Service.
[3] Omitted in 1552
[4] Omitted in 1552. The American Service has accept this our bounden duty and Service as above, but LEAVES out "and command these," etc.
III
[III]
THE PRIESTHOOD
LAST Sunday I spoke of the Catholic doctrine of the Mass and the Holy Eucharist; I pointed out what our faith taught us about the Blessed Sacrament and how the Mass was to our Catholic forefathers and to us to-day, the central act of worship of God; and that the Holy Communion in a very true sense is the food of our spiritual life, as it binds us to God and brings Him into our lives in truth and in reality, which is the end and object of every act of religion. I pointed out to you that by the principles of the Reformation, adopted by the followers of the Lutheran theology in England, the Mass, as a "Sacrifice and Oblation," was not merely attacked doctrinally, and spoken of by the men of the "New Learning" with scurrilous profanity, but destroyed altogether, as far as it was possible for them to do. The service of Communion in the New Book of Common Prayer, designed to take the place of the ancient missals, was drawn up in such a way as to get rid of every expression of the Catholic doctrine as to the Sacrifice of the Mass, absolutely. If the old dictum lex orandi est lex credendi—prayer follows belief—has any application at all, it must be obvious in this case that the authors of the new English Prayer Book had completely rejected the Catholic belief as to the Most Holy Sacrament. The proof lies not in the new forms only when compared with the old, but in the clear and definite statements of those who had the main share in drawing up the Communion Service of the Book of Common Prayer and the chief part in imposing its acceptance upon the people of England.
I know well that in comparatively late times one school of thought in the English Church have endeavoured to get back to the old Catholic doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Some have been so dissatisfied with the formula of the Communion in the Book of Common Prayer that they have added to it and have even in some cases made use of our ancient Canon from the Latin missal. In other instances, as in the Communion Service in the American Church, a longer Canon had been adopted, taken from the First Prayer Book of 1549 and arranged differently from that of the Second Book now in use in England. But the doctrine in this is in no sense our Catholic doctrine. For, although the words "sacrifice" and "oblation" may be found in it, as indeed in the Anglican prototype, the word signifies not the Catholic sacrifice, the offering up of the Body and Blood of our Lord as a living victim upon the altar, but as the words in the Communion office define it, "our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving," in which "we offer and present ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto thee." Mind, for my present purpose, I am not here contending that the work of the Reformers in the 16th century in thus composing a new formula was wrong. All I would insist upon is that this was in fact done; that certain ancient Catholic principles were abandoned in the New Communion Service, and that this new Book by the authority of the State was imposed upon the consciences of all.