IV COMMUNION OR MASS BY THE VENERABLE W. L. PAIGE COX, B.D. ARCHDEACON OF CHESTER AND CANON OF CHESTER CATHEDRAL SYNOPSIS INTENTION OF THE ANGLICAN REFORMERS TO CHANGE THE MASS INTO A COMMUNION. Evidences in the Prayer Books of 1549 and 1552, with later revisions. The doctrine thus set forth assented to by every person ordained in RECENT MOVEMENT TO DISREGARD THE REFORMATION SETTLEMENT Particulars in Report of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Later developments. THE MASS ADVOCATED AS CATHOLIC. Misuse of the word " Catholic." The Vincentian formula. The doctrine of the Mass a later corruption. Aim of the Anglican Reformers to doctrine." THE TEST OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. restore the true and Catholic The "full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction." The Anamnesis. GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE AND SPECIFIC RITUAL OF THE It does not accord with the teaching of the New Testament about It tends to subvert belief in the universal and continual presence of It has not the warrant of Christ's ordinance. It does not lay a rightly proportioned emphasis on the New Testament teaching concerning the sacrifices to be offered by Christian people. It "has given occasion to many superstitions." THE REVIVAL OF THE MASS IN ITS BEARING ON REUNION. It causes division within the Church of England. It tends to widen the breach between the Church of England and the other Reformed Communions. A necessary basis for reunion is the general abstinence from dogmatism about things which Christ did not reveal and which need not and cannot be precisely defined. The Church of England at the Reformation reverted to the Primitive usage in this regard. MOTIVES FOR REVIVING THE MASS. The imitation of Rome. The difficulty of realising the Divine immanence. The spectacular attractiveness of the Mass. A MORE EXCELLENT WAY. Possibilities of the Holy Communion as the central service of the Church. The One Bread and One Body. The opportunity of the Church of England as witnessing to "the true and Catholic doctrine." ADDITIONAL NOTES A. THE WORD "MASS." B. THE WORD "CATHOLIC." IV COMMUNION OR MASS IN the text-books of the Roman Catholic Church it is taught that at the Reformation in England the Mass was changed into a Communion Service. Till recently that has been recognised and admitted in our own text-books. Thus, in The History of the Book of Common Prayer, by Francis Procter, it is said of the Order of Communion which preceded the First Prayer Book of Edward VI., " It turned' the Mass' into 'the Communion." "1 That was certainly the intention of the Anglican Reformers. The title given to the Service in the Prayer Book of 1549 was "The Supper of the Lord and the Holy Communion, commonly called the Mass." Though the word "Mass Mass" was used in the title, no doubt to denote the continuity of the service with that to which the people had been accustomed, the essential change in the character of the service was indicated by the priority given to the two Scriptural terms; and throughout the service the term "Mass" is never used. It is always the "Holy Communion" or the or the "Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ." 2 1 P. 23, 14th edition, 1878. 2 Dr. W. H. Frere, in his New History of the Book of Common Prayer on the Basis of the former Work by Francis Procter, speaks of the Communion Office of the First Prayer Book as "The English Mass of 1549" (p. 450), and expresses himself most unaccountably as follows: "Other titles (referring to the word Liturgy) bring out other aspects of the same service which was called the Mass by the First Prayer Book, as was usual in the mediaeval and the Latin Church, but which in the later Prayer Books is called The Lord's Supper and The Holy Communion ” (p. 432). See Additional Note A-The Word "Mass.' Cranmer, who took such a large part in the compilation of the First Prayer Book, declared some time before that the Sacrament was only a memory and representation of the Sacrifice of the Cross. Its virtue was limited to the receivers of the communion, and the laity derived no benefit from private masses performed by priests." Accordingly, the doctrine of transubstantiation was excluded from the First Prayer Book, and the elevation and "shewing the Sacrament to the people" were left out. Stress was laid on the reception of the Holy Communion, two exhortations on the subject being inserted and a direction being given after the offertory to those that did not " mind to receive the Holy Communion" to "depart out of the quire." There were, however, ambiguities in the service of which advantage was taken by those who clung to the unreformed doctrine, and this led to the revision of 1552. The sequence of the 1549 office was substantially that of the old Mass, and priests were able, by saying the words in an undertone and repeating the old manual acts, to make the new form indistinguishable from the Mass. In the 1552 office no room was left for this representation or misrepresentation. The service was so arranged as to exclude the ideas of sacrifice and corporal presence which had interpenetrated every word and action in the Mass. The word "altar " was expunged; the Gloria in Excelsis, instead of being placed at the beginning of the office and heralding the presence of God, was placed at the end; and the words "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" were omitted as implying the same conception.1 The title of the service was then fixed to be what it is now, "The Order of the Administration of the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion," the reference to the previous title of the service as unreformed being omitted. Our present Communion Office is substantially 1 See Thomas Cranmer, by Professor A. F. Pollard, pp. 272-73. |