A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

OBLATION. An offering to God.

In the office for the holy communion we pray God to “accept our alms and oblations.” The word oblations was added to this prayer for the Church militant here on earth, at the same time that the rubric enjoined, that, if there be a communion, “the priest is then,” just before this prayer, “to place upon the table so much bread and wine as he shall think sufficient.” Hence it is clearly evident that by that word we are to understand the elements of bread and wine, which the priest is to offer solemnly to God, as an acknowledgment of his sovereignty over his creatures, and that from henceforth they may be peculiarly his. For in all the Jewish sacrifices, of which the people were partakers, the viands or materials of the feast were first made God’s by a solemn oblation, and then afterwards eaten by the communicants, not as man’s, but as God’s provision, who, by thus entertaining them at his own table, declared himself reconciled and again in covenant with them. And therefore our blessed Saviour, when he instituted the sacrament of his body and blood, first gave thanks, and blessed the elements, i. e. offered them up to God as the Lord of the creatures, as the most ancient Fathers expound that passage; who for that reason, whenever they celebrated the eucharist, always offered the bread and wine for the communion to God upon the altar, by this or some such short ejaculation, “Lord, we offer thine own out of what thou hast bountifully given us.” After which they received them, as it were, from him again, in order to convert them into the sacred banquet of the body and blood of his dear Son. Consonant to this, in the First Common Prayer of King Edward VI., the priest was ordered in this place to set the bread and wine upon the altar. But at the second review, to conciliate the ultra-Protestants, this ancient usage appears to have been thrown out. It was however restored at the last review of the Prayer Book in the reign of Charles II., when it was ordered that the bread and wine should be placed solemnly on the table by the priest himself. Whence it appears that the placing of the elements upon the altar before the beginning of the morning service, by the hands of a lay-clerk or sexton, as is sometimes the irreverent practice, is a profane breach of the aforesaid rubric.—Mede. Wheatly.

The English liturgy is not without a verbal oblation, which occurs at the beginning of the prayers and commemorations. After the elements have been placed on the table, and thus devoted to the service and honour of God, the priest prays to God thus: “We humbly beseech thee most mercifully to accept our alms and oblations, and to receive these our prayers, which we offer unto thy Divine Majesty.” Here three species of sacrifice or oblation are verbally offered: first, the “alms,” which St. Paul describes as a sacrifice well-pleasing to God; secondly, the “oblations,” namely, the creatures of bread and wine; thirdly, the “prayers,” which, according to St. John, are offered with incense on the heavenly altar, and of which the holy Fathers speak as a sacrifice and oblation to God.—Palmer.

In a more extended sense of the word, we mean by oblations whatever religious Christians offer to God and the Church, whether in lands or goods. It is probable that the example of St. Paul might incite the primitive Christians to offer these gifts to the Church; for he appointed every one of the Corinthians and Galatians to yield something to God for the saints every Lord’s day: but this being thought too often, therefore Tertullian tells us it was afterwards done every month, and then ad libitum: but it was always the custom for communicants to offer something at receiving the sacrament, as well for holy uses, as for relief of the poor, which custom is, or ought to be, observed at this day.

In the first ages of the Church, those deposita pietatis, which are mentioned by Tertullian, were all voluntary oblations, and they were received in lieu of tithes; for the Christians at that time lived chiefly in cities, and gave out of their common stock, both to maintain the Church, and those who served at the altar.

But when their numbers increased, and they were spread abroad in the countries, then a more fixed maintenance was necessary for the clergy; but still oblations were made by the people, which, if in the mother Church, then the bishop had half, and the other was divided amongst the clergy; but if offered in a parish church, then the bishop had a third part, and no more.

These oblations, which at first were voluntary, became afterwards, by a continual payment, due by custom.

It is true there are canons which require every one who approaches the altar to make some oblation to it, as a thing convenient to be done.

And it is probable that, in obedience to the canons, it became customary for every man who made a will before the Reformation, to devise something to the high altar of the church where he lived, and something likewise to the mother church or cathedral; and those who were to be buried in the church usually gave something towards its reparations.

But at the great festivals all people were obliged to offer something, not only as convenient, but as a duty; but the proportion was left to the discretion of the giver; and we think, with great reason, for the bounty of the Christians in those ages was so great, that men would build churches on their own lands, on purpose that they might have an equal share of those oblations with the clergy.