The Holy Communion

Sarum Use — The First Prayer Book of Edward VI., 1549 — The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom — The 'Gloria in Excelsis' — The 'Salutation' — The Nicean Creed — The rubrics — The Canon of 1549 — The Order for Communion, 1548 — The rubrics as to the bread and manner of reception — The Second Prayer Book of Edward VI., its changes — The Prayer of Consecration — The Words of Administration — The object of the Changes — The Elizabethan Revision in 1559 — The Black Rubric — The Changes in 1662 — The changes contained in the Permissive Measure — The Canon in the same.

In Book I. we have traced the variations of the Liturgy, according to the Greek, Roman, and Gallic Uses, together with Ambrosian, Mozarabic, and Celtic forms, leading up to the Sarum Use, which was directly derived from the Use at Rouen in Normandy.

In order to fully apprehend our present Liturgy, it is necessary to consider first of all the Liturgy in the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. in 1549.

The form in the main follows the general lines of the Sarum Use, but the preparatory prayers were reduced to a minimum so that only the Lord's Prayer and a Collect for Purity remain.

This Collect for Purity is taken from the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, 398–407, from which Cranmer took several items. It is, in fact, the prayer before the 'Little Entrance' of the Gospel.

This was followed by the psalm for the Introit and the ninefold Kyrie, which, as we have seen, is the sole relic of the bidding prayers.

The rubric prescribes that this should be done by the priest standing humbly "afore the middes of the altar".

Then after the Kyrie "the priest standing at God's board shall begin" the Gloria in Excelsis. This ancient canticle is found in the Greek Mattins from which it was probably taken, though legend ascribes it to Pope Telephorus, circa 125. The earliest records of it show that it was in the Clementine Liturgy, and it is also contained in the Codex Alexandrinus, circa 400–500, now in the British Museum.

After the Salutation, which is of the earliest date, even if not from Apostolic times, the Collect for the day was said together with one of two special Collects for the King in accordance with 1 Tim. ii. 2. Then followed the Epistle and the announcement of the Gospel, to which there is the answer "Glory be to thee, O Lord", and the Gospel was immediately followed by the Creed, thus omitting the musical portions of the Gradual, Alleluia, and Sequence or Tract, which used to be sung between the Epistle and Gospel. The Creed is that commonly called the Nicean Creed; it is not, in fact, the Creed of the Fathers of the First General Council of Nicea in 325, but is the formula used at baptism by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, circa 348, and contained in his 'Mystagogic Catechesis' and in the Liturgy of St. James, which was afterwards adopted at Constantinople.

The recital of the Baptismal Creed at the Liturgy was first ordered by Peter the Fuller, Bishop of Antioch, circa 471, as a safeguard against Arianism; which example was followed by Timothy, Bishop of Constantinople, circa 511; previously it had been only recited in the Liturgy on Maundy Thursday.

At the third Council of Toledo in 589, this Creed was likewise added to the Liturgy for the same purpose, though the original Nicean Creed was also known at Toledo. In course of time its use became general in the Gallic Church, but it was not until 1014 that it was adopted at Rome, as there had been no anxiety there about Arianism.

After the Creed came the Sermon or Homily. For a considerable period before the Reformation, it was not customary for sermons to be preached except on special occasions, and the Book of Homilies was specially composed for the assistance of parish priests who were not accustomed to deliver sermons themselves.

The prayer at the beginning of the sermon is, strictly speaking, governed by the Canon lv., but the ascription at the end depends entirely upon ancient custom.

The laity had only been accustomed to communicate at Easter; therefore the Exhortations were a special feature of the Prayer Book, of which there were two alternative ones. Then followed the Offertory Sentences, after which the following rubrics occur:

"Then so many as shall be partakers of the Holy Communion, shall tarry still in the quire, or in some convenient place nigh the quire, the men on one side and the women on the other side."

"Then shall the minister take so much Bread and Wine as shall suffice for the persons appointed to receive the Holy Communion, laying the bread upon the Corporas or else in the Paten or in some other comely thing prepared for that purpose, and putting the wine into the Chalice or else in some fair or convenient cup prepared for that use if the Chalice will not serve, putting thereto a little pure and clean water. And setting both bread and wine upon the Altar: then the Priest shall say":

The Salutation.

The Sursum Corda.

The Preface.

Only five Proper Prefaces were provided for Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Whitsun and Trinity Sunday, those for Easter, Ascension and Trinity being taken from the Sarum Use.

The Preface was followed by the Cherubic Hymn from Isaiah vi. 3.

Then came the Canon which in 1549 combined the present prayer for the Church Militant. The words of the Consecration contained a definite epiklesis, or invocation of the Holy Ghost: "Hear us (O merciful father) we beseech thee: and with thy holy spirit and word vouchsafe to bl✠ess and sanc✠tify these thy gifts of bread and wine that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved son Jesus Christ", followed by the Anamnesis or words of institution. This was followed by the Oblation, which was similar to the present first prayer after the Communion.

Following which:

"As our Saviour Christ hath commanded and taught us we are bold to say Our Father ⸻ temptation.
Answer: But deliver us from evil, Amen."

After the Salutation:

The Priest: "Christ our Pascal lamb is offered for us once for all when he bare our sins on his body upon the cross, for he is the very lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world: wherefore let us keep a joyful and holy feast with the Lord."

Then followed the present Invitation, Confession, and Absolution, Comfortable Words and Prayer of Humble Access.

This part had first appeared in the Order for Communion in 1548, which had been directed to be added to the Latin Mass. The form of Absolution is taken from the Sarum Use, but the Confession and idea of the Comfortable Words are based upon Hermann's Consultation, to which previous reference has been made (see p. 122).

The words of Administration were:

"The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."

"The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."

In the Communion time the Agnus Dei was directed to be sung. This was first introduced by Pope Sergius, 687–701.

After one of a collection of texts called post-communion sentences and the Salutation came the Thanksgiving, which was the same as the second post-communion prayer of the existing book.

The service ended with the Pax, taken from Philippians iv. 7, with the Episcopal Blessing added to it.

The first, second, and fourth Collects to be used after the Offertory were taken from the Sarum Use; the others are ascribed to Cranmer.

Of the various rubrics which were placed at the end of the service, notice may be taken of the two following:

"For avoiding of all matters and occasion of dissension, it is meet that the bread prepared for the Communion, be made, through all this realm, after one sort and fashion, that is to say, unleavened, and round, as it was afore, but without all manner of print, and something more larger and thicker than it was, so that it may be aptly divided in divers pieces: and every one shall be divided in two pieces, at the least, or more, by the discretion of the minister, and so distributed. And men must not think less to be received in part than in the whole, but in each of them the whole body of our Saviour Jesu Christ."

"And although it be read in ancient writers, that the people many years past received at the priest's hands the Sacrament of the body of Christ in their own hands, and no commandment of Christ to the contrary: Yet for as much as they many times conveyed the same secretly away, kept it with them, and diversely abused it to superstition and wickedness: lest any such thing hereafter should be attempted, and that an uniformity might be used, throughout the whole Realm: it is thought convenient the people commonly receive the Sacrament of Christ's body, in their mouths, at the Priest's hand."

In the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. in 1552 considerable changes were made.

To begin with, the title was altered from "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion commonly called the Mass" to "The Order for the administration of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion", and, as we have seen, the Ornaments Rubric prescribed a surplice only for the ministers. The Introit was abolished, and instead of the ninefold Kyrie by itself, the Kyrie was used as part of the answer to each of the Ten Commandments taken from the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The Gloria in Excelsis was removed from the beginning of the service to the end. The Exhortations were altered: that "when people are negligent" was composed by Peter Martyr. Then the Canon was broken up and the Intercession was placed immediately after the Offertory, and the prayers for the dead being omitted, the bidding became for the "Church militant here on earth", at the same time the offering of the alms was included.

The Invitation, General Confession, Absolution and Comfortable Words, were transferred from their position between the Consecration and the Prayer of Humble Access so as to precede the Salutation and Preface.

The Prayer of Consecration was then reduced to the Introduction and 'Anamnesis' or the words of institution, omitting the Oblation, and at the same time the Invocation of the Holy Spirit was dropped and the central Petition changed to: "Grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine according to Thy Son Our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution in remembrance of His death and passion, may be partakers of His blessed body and blood".

The object of these changes was to make the Communion follow immediately after the Consecration, so as to avoid eucharistic worship: so that even the Lord's Prayer and the Oblation were transferred to the post-Communion.

At the same time direct orders were omitted for the Offertory, Agnus Dei, Mixed Chalice, and the manual acts of consecration.

Moreover, the words of administration were altered to:

"Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him by faith with thanksgiving";

and

"Drink this in remembrance that Christ's blood was shed for thee and be thankful."

In the revision in 1559 these two sets of words of administration of 1549 and 1552 were combined into the formulae which is still in use, and at the same time the Ornaments Rubric was altered so as to be the same as that contained in the Book of 1549.

Finally, as we have seen in Chapter XXII. p. 130, the Black Rubric as to kneeling was added; though "real and essential presence" was changed to "corporal presence" in 1662, after this rubric had been omitted altogether from the Elizabethan Prayer Book of 1559. In 1662 there was added to the Prayer for Christ's Church militant after 'alms' the words 'and oblations', also the clause:

"And we also bless thy holy name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom."

The exhortations were considerably altered, and those given with notice of the celebration of the Holy Communion were directed to be given after the sermon and not after the Prayer for the Church Militant.

The rubric as to the Confession was altered, so that it should be said by the minister and the people. In the Proper Prefaces for Christmas and Whitsun "this day" was changed to "as at this time". The rubric as to the Consecration was changed in 1662 by the addition of the directions as to the ordering of the bread and wine, and the manual directions as to the Fraction and Consecration were also added.

In the alternative Order contained in the Permissive Measure to which allusion has been made in Chapter XXV. the rubric runs as follows:

"The Ten Commandments may be omitted provided that they be rehearsed at least once on a Sunday in each month, and when they are so omitted then shall be said in place thereof Our Lord's Summary of the Law." "Hear, O Israel, etc."

Or else this Kyrie:

"Lord have mercy upon us.
Christ have mercy upon us.
Lord have mercy upon us";

or

"Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison",

followed by the Salutation.

After the annunciation of the Gospel for the day, the response is restored, 'Glory be to thee, O Lord'. In the Intercession the following prayer for the dead is added:

"And we commend to thy gracious keeping, O Lord, all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear, beseeching thee to grant them everlasting light and peace.

And here we give thee most high praise and hearty thanks for all thy Saints who have been the chosen vessels of thy grace and lights of the world in their several generations; and we pray that rejoicing in their fellowship and following their good examples we may be partakers with them in thy heavenly Kingdom."

The Canon consists of a restoration of the introduction of 1549 prefaced by the opening words from the Scottish Book of 1636: the Anamnesis or words of the institution are followed by a definite Epiklesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit, taken from the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom: the oblation which succeeds is taken from the post-Communion prayer of 1552.

Thus in technical terms shifting the 'spiritual content' or Divine operative power mentioned in Chapter VIII. p. 37, from the Anamnesis to the Epiklesis.

The wording of this prayer of Consecration is as follows:

"All glory be to thee Almighty God our heavenly Father, for that thou of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our redemption; who made there (by his one oblation of himself once offered) a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his Holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death until his coming again; who in the same night that he was betrayed, took Bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take eat, this is my Body which is given for you; Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise after supper he took the Cup; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, Drink ye all of this; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins; Do this, as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me. Wherefore, O Lord, and heavenly Father, we thy humble servants, having in remembrance the precious death and passion of thy dear Son, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, according to his holy institution, do celebrate, and set forth before thy Divine Majesty with these thy holy gifts, the memorial which he hath willed us to make, rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits which he hath procured unto us. Hear, O Merciful Father, we most humbly beseech thee, and with thy Holy and Life-giving Spirit vouchsafe to bless and sanctify both us and these thy gifts of Bread and Wine, that they may be unto us the Body and Blood of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, to the end that we, receiving the same, may be strengthened and refreshed both in body and soul.

And we entirely desire thy Fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most humbly beseeching thee to grant, that by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we and all thy whole Church may obtain remission of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion.

And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee: humbly beseeching thee, that all we, who are partakers of this Holy Communion, may be fulfilled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.

And although we be unworthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offences;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom, and with whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end."

This is followed by the phrase according to St. Jerome in the Roman Canon:

"As our Saviour Christ hath commanded and taught us we are bold to say, Our Father," etc.

After which:

"The peace of God be alway with you.
Answer: And with thy spirit."

This is a modern versicle replacing the old Pax or Kiss of Peace which occurred here.

The post-Communion thanksgiving is preceded by the bidding:

"Having now by faith received the precious Body and Blood of Christ, let us give thanks unto Our Lord God."