[216-*] Dr. Cardwell, in his editorial preface to the reprint of the two Books of Common Prayer set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, observes, “The communion service of the first liturgy contained a prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine, and a following prayer of oblation, which, together with the form of words addressed to the communicants, were designed to represent a sacrifice, and appeared to undiscriminating minds to denote the sacrifice of the mass. Numerous, therefore, and urgent were the objections against this portion of the service. Combined with a large class of objectors, whose theology consisted merely in an undefined dread of Romanism, were all those, however differing among themselves, who believed the holy communion to be a feast and not a sacrifice, and that larger class of persons who, placing the solemn duty upon its proper religious basis, were contented to worship without waiting to refine.”
[218-*] Fox’s Martyrology.
[223-*] In compliance with the queen’s letter, the following directions were sent by the commissioners to the dean and chapter of Bristol:
“After our hartie comendaco̅n̅s.—Whereas we are credibly informed that there are divers tabernacles for Images, as well in the fronture of the roodeloft of the cathl church of Bristol, as also in the frontures, back, and ends of the walles wheare the com̅n̅ table standeth, for asmoch as the same churche shoulde be a light and good example to th’ ole citie and dioc. we have thought good to direct these our lr̅e̅s unto you, and to require youe to cause the said tabernacles to be defaced & hewen downe, and afterwards to be made a playne walle, wth morter, plastr, or otherways, & some scriptures to be written in the places, & namely that upon the walle on the east end of the quier wheare the com̅n̅ table usually doth stande, the table of the co̅m̅andts to be painted in large caracters, with convenient speed, and furniture according to the orders latly set furthe by vertue of the quenes mats co̅m̅ission for causes ecclesiasticall, at the coste and chardges of the said churche; whereof we require you not to faile. And so we bed you farewell. From London, the xxi. of December, 1561.”—Britton’s Bristol Cath. p. 52.
[224-*] In the chancel of Bengeworth Church, Gloucestershire, is a table of the commandments, with the letters cut in box-wood. This has the date of 1591 upon it.
[226-*] These are engraved in vol. xx. of the Archæologia, and, from the general style and mouldings, appear to have been constructed in the latter part of the fifteenth century.
[230-*] The symbolical turning towards the east whilst pronouncing the Creed is adverted to by St. Cyril. In the Apostolical Constitutions, book ii. sect. xxviii., the attendants at public worship are enjoined to pray to God eastward. The custom of turning to the east at prayer is noticed by many of the early fathers of the church, and among them by St. Basil, who remarks, “As to the doctrines and preachings which are preserved in the church, we have some of them from the written doctrine; others we have received as delivered from the tradition of the apostles in a mystery. For, to begin with the mention of what is first and most common, who has taught us by writing that those that hope in the name of our Lord should be signed with the sign of the cross? what written law has taught us that we should turn towards the east in our prayers?.... Is not all this derived from this concealed and mystical tradition?.... We all, indeed, look towards the east in our prayers.”—Basil, Epist. ad Amphiloc. de Spiritu S. Whiston’s translation in Essay on the Apostolical Constitutions.
[231-*] Funeral Monuments, A. D. 1631, p. 701.
[232-*] Printed in Strype’s Life of Parker. In the same paper the communion table is noticed as standing in the body of the church in some places, in others standing in the chancel; in some places standing altarwise, distant from the wall a yard, in others in the middle of the chancel, north and south; in some places the table was joined, in others it stood upon tressels; in some the table had a carpet, in others none.
[235-*] “The position of the table had now become the token of a distinct and solemn belief as to the nature of the eucharist, and was therefore treated as a question of conscience and an article of faith.”—Cardwell’s Documentary Annals, vol. ii. p. 186, note. The extracts given from the injunctions have been principally taken from this work.