By Can. 109, "If any offend their brethren, either by adultery, whoredom, incest or drunkenness, or by swearing, ribaldry, usury or any other uncleanness or wickedness of life, such notorious offenders shall not be admitted to the holy communion till they be reformed." By Čan. 71, "No minister shall administer the holy Not to be adcommunion in any private house, except it be in times of ministered in necessity, when any being either so impotent as he cannot private house. go to the church, or very dangerously sick, are desirous to be partakers of the holy sacrament, upon pain of suspension for the first offence and excommunication for the second. Provided, that houses are here reputed for private houses, wherein are no chapels dedicated and allowed by the ecclesiastical laws of this realm. And provided also, under the pains before expressed, that no chaplains do administer the communion in any other places but in the chapels of the said houses; and that also they do the same very seldom upon Sundays and holidays: so that both the lords and masters of the said houses and their families, shall at other times resort to their own parish churches, and there receive the holy communion at the least once every year." holy com By Can. 22, "We do require every minister to give Notice to be warning to his parishioners publicly in the church at given of the morning prayer, the Sunday before every time of his ad- munion. ministering that holy sacrament, for their better preparation of themselves; which said warning we enjoin the said parishioners to accept and obey, under the penalty and danger of the law." And by the rubric: "The minister shall always give warning for the celebration of the holy communion upon the Sunday or some holiday immediately preceding." And "So many as intend to be partakers of the holy Names to be communion shall signify their names to the curate at least given in the some time the day before." In the thirteenth year of Charles the Second's reign, an action upon the case was brought against a minister for refusing the sacrament to another, and the jury found for the plaintiff, and gave damages. And it was moved in arrest of judgment, among other things, that the party had not set forth in his declaration, that he gave notice according to the statute, nor that he was a parishioner of that parish, without which the minister might not admit him by the laws of the church. But these points appear not to have come under consideration, because another exception was of itself adjudged to be fatal, viz., that the plaintiff declared for not administering day before. What number communi two Sundays, and had not set forth that in the second instance he desired the minister to do it, and yet entire damages had been given for both (e). Another rubric enacts that "There shall be no celeis requisite for bration of the Lord's Supper, except there be a convenient number to communicate with the priest, according to his discretion." cating. Communion table. Bread and wine to be provided. "And if there be not above twenty persons in the parish of discretion to receive the communion, yet there shall be no communion except four (or three at the least) communicate with the priest." "And in cathedral and collegiate churches and colleges, where there are many priests and deacons, they shall all receive the communion with the priest every Sunday at the least, except they have reasonable cause to the contrary." By Can. 82, "Whereas we have no doubt, but that in all churches convenient and decent tables are provided and placed for the celebration of the holy communion, we appoint that the same tables shall from time to time be kept and repaired in sufficient and seemly manner, and covered in time of divine service with a carpet of silk or other decent stuff, thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it, and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration, as becometh that table; and so stand, saving when the holy communion is to be administered, at which time the same shall be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration, and the communicants also more conveniently and in more number may communicate with the said minister" (ƒ). By Can. 20, "The churchwardens, against the time of every communion, shall at the charge of the parish, with the advice and direction of the minister, provide a sufficient quantity of fine white bread, and of good and wholesome wine, for the number of communicants that shall receive there; which wine shall be brought to the communion table in a clean and sweet standing pot or stoop of pewter, if not of purer metal." And by the rubric, "The bread and wine for the communion shall be provided by the curate and churchwardens at the charges of the parish." In the case of Franklyn and The Master and Brethren (e) 1 Sid. 34. (f) See Faulkner v. Litchfield, 1 Roberts. 184; Liddell v. Westerton, Moo, Special Report; post. of St. Cross in 1721 (g), although by the endowment the vicar was to find the sacrament wine, yet the court were of opinion it should be found by the parishioners, according to the canon. It might have been also said, accord ing to the rubric. "And to take away all occasion of dissension and superstition which any person hath or might have concerning the bread and wine, it shall suffice that the bread be such as is usual to be eaten, but the best and purest wheat bread that conveniently may be gotten." The decisions on this rubric in the case of Mr. Purchas (h) will be noticed hereafter. In the rubric in the communion service of the 2 Edw. 6, Offertory. it was ordained, "that whyles the clearkes do syng the offertory, so many as are disposed, shall offer to the poore mennes boxe, every one according to his habilitie and charitable mynde." And by the present rubric," Whilst the sentences of the offertory are in reading, the deacons, churchwardens, or other fit person appointed for that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor, and other devotions of the people, in a decent bason to be provided by the parish for that purpose, and reverently bring it to the priest, who shall humbly present and place it upon the holy table." "And after divine service is ended, the money given at the offertory shall be disposed of to such pious and charitable uses as the minister and churchwardens shall think fit, wherein if they disagree, it shall be disposed of as the ordinary shall appoint." By the rubric," Such ornaments of the church, and Habit of the of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, minister officiating. shall be retained and be in use, as were in the Church of England by the authority of parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI." And by the rubric of the 2 Edw. 6, it is ordained, "That upon the day and at the time appointed for the ministration of the holy communion, the priest that shall execute the holy ministry shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say, a white albe plain, with a vestment or cope; and where there be many priests or deacons, there so many shall be ready to help the priest in the ministration, as shall be requisite ; (g) Bunb. 79. (h) 3 L. R., Adm. & Eccl. 66; 19 W. R. 898. The various recent decisions on the ceremonies prescribed or forbidden by the Posture of the communicants. Communion in both kinds. and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to say, albes with tunacles." "And whensoever the bishop shall celebrate the holy communion in the church, or execute any other public ministration, he shall have upon him, besides his rochet, a surplice or albe, and a cope or vestment, and also his pastoral staff in his hand, or else borne or holden by his chaplain." The decisions on this point in the case of Mr. Purchas will be noticed hereafter. By Can. 27, of 1603," No minister when he celebrateth the communion shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel, under pain of suspension." And by the rubric at the end of the communion office: "Whereas it is ordained in this office for the administration of the Lord's Supper, that the communicants should receive the same kneeling (which order is well meant for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy receivers, and for the avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy communion as might otherwise ensue), yet lest the same kneeling should, by any persons, either out of ignorance or infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy, be misconstrued or depraved, it is here declared, that thereby no adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the sacramental bread and wine there bodily received, or unto any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood, for the sacramental bread and wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored (for that were idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians), and the natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in heaven, and not here, it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places than one." By Art. 30, "The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people, for both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.” And by 1 Edw. 6, c. 1, s. 8, "Forasmuch as it is more agreeable to the first institution of the said sacrament, and more conformable to the common use and practice of the apostles and of the primitive church for above 500 years after Christ's ascension, that the same should be administered under both the kinds of bread and wine, than under the form of bread only; and also it is more agreeable to the first institution of Christ, and to the usage of the apostles and the primitive church, that the people should receive the same with the priest than that the priest should receive it alone;" it is therefore enacted, "that the said most blessed sacrament be commonly delivered and ministered unto the people under the both kinds, that is to say, of bread and wine, except necessity otherwise require. And also that the priest, which shall minister the same, shall at the least one day before exhort all persons which shall be present likewise to resort and prepare themselves to receive the same. And when the day prefixed cometh, after a godly exhortation by the minister made (wherein shall be further expressed the benefit and comfort promised to them which worthily receive the holy sacrament, and danger and indignation of God threatened to them which shall presume to receive the same unworthily, to the end that every man may try and examine his own conscience before he shall receive the same), the said minister shall not without a lawful cause deny the same to any person that will devoutly and humbly desire it. Not condemning hereby the usage of any church out of the king's dominions." wine remain By the rubric, "If any of the bread and wine remain Bread and unconsecrated, the curate shall have it to his own use, but if any remain of that which was consecrated it shall ing. not be carried out of the church, but the priest, and such other of the communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall immediately after the blessing reverently eat and drink the same." By a constitution of Archbishop Langton, it is enjoined Oblations due that, "No sacrament of the church shall be denied to any to the minister. one upon the account of any sum of money, but if any thing hath been accustomed to be given by the pious devotion of the faithful, justice shall be done thereupon to the churches by the ordinary of the place afterwards " (i). And by the rubric, "Yearly at Easter, every parishioner shall reckon with the parson, vicar or curate, or his or their deputy or deputies, and pay to them or him all ecclesiastical duties accustomably due then and at that time to be paid” (k). tered. By the ancient canon law, every layman (not prohi- How often bited by crimes of a heinous nature) was required to comin the year to be adminismunicate at least thrice in the year, namely, at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas; and the secular clergy not communicating at those times were not to be reckoned amongst catholics (1). (i) Lind. 278; vide ante, p. 664, n. (k) Vide post. (1) Gibs. 387. |