necessary. But the case admitted of very little delay, as Easter, when men usually approached

makes it very probable, that St. Cyril's catechism has also been tampered with, and a clause put in, which speaks of their praying to God by the intercession of Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs; since the ancient liturgies prayed for them as well as for all others. St. Chrysostom says expressly they offered for the Martyrs. And so it is expressed in his Greek liturgy: We offer unto thee this reasonable service for the faithful deceased, our forefathers, fathers, Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, Evangelists, Martyrs, Confessors, religious persons, and every spirit perfected in the faith; but especially for our most holy, immaculate, most blessed Lady, the mother of God, and ever Virgin Mary." (Ibid. 757.) Bishop Fisher says, that, "in the ancient writers there is almost no mention of purgatory, especially in the Greek writers, and therefore, that by the Grecians it is not believed until this day." (Abp. Usher's Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge, 181.) "The first whom we find directly to have held, that for certain light faults there is a purgatory fire provided before the day of judgment, was Gregory I. about the end of the sixth age after the birth of our Saviour Christ." (Ibid. 186.) Gregory, however, appears not to have held the modern Romish notions of purgatory. (Ibid. 188.) Otto Frisingensis, who wrote in 1146, says, "that there is in hell a place of purgatory, wherein such as are to be saved, are either only troubled with darkness, or decocted with the fire of expiation, some do affirm." (Ibid. 189.) "Nennius and Probus, and all the elder writers of the life of St. Patrick that I have met withal, speak not one word of any such place: (as purgatory :) and Henry, the monk of Saltrey, in the days of King Stephen, is the first in whom I could ever find any mention thereof." (Abp. Usher's Epistle concerning the religion anciently professed by the Irish and Scottish, 16.) If the writings attributed to St. Patrick are genuine, it appears, that, "he was careful to implant in men's minds the belief of heaven and hell, but of purgatory he taught them never a word. And sure I am, that in the book ascribed to him De tribus habitaculis, which is to be seen in his Majesty's library, there is no mention

the Lord's table followed within a short interval after the time when the Parliament had separated. It was therefore deemed expedient, under the urgency of the case, merely to prepare as an appendage to the mass, a form in English for the administration of the Eucharist in both kinds, according to the legislative provisions lately enacted. On the 8th of March accordingly, proceeded from Grafton's press a service adapted to this purpose; to which was prefixed a royal proclamation enjoining a ready obedience to the alterations already made, and intimating that farther reforms were in agitation. To the office itself was prefixed a rubric ordering the officiating minister to give notice of his intention to administer the Communion, on the Sunday or holiday next before, or at least on the day before such celebration. The words prescribed for this notice

of any other place after this life, but of these two only." (Ibid. 17.) It is evident from Bede, that in his days, a belief in something like the purgatory of modern Romanism was making its way among the credulous, for he relates some visions reported to have been seen, in which the dreamer was believed to have been admitted to a sight of certain purgatorial inflictions. That, however, it was considered an integral part of the Christian faith, in Bede's time, to admit the existence of a place for the temporary punishment of all human souls, is nowise probable. For even Gregory I., although he gave some encouragement to the expectation of such a place, says, "in the day of his death a just man falls to the south, a sinner to the north; because a just man, by the fervour of the spirit, is carried to joys, and the sinner, in the coldness of his heart, is reprobated by the Apostate angel." Britons and Saxons not converted to Popery, 351.

are not materially different from those which appear in the first annunciatory exhortation to be seen in the present English Communion-service. Excellent as every Christian must allow this exhortation to be, a mind imbued with Romish prejudices would observe with regret that it enjoined an acknowledgement of sins not to man, but to God, that it admonished penitents whom a review of their past conduct filled with more than ordinary perplexity to lay their case, not of necessity before their own parish priest, but before any discreet and learned divine, and that it left auricular confession entirely to the discretion of individuals, recommending that no person should undertake to censure his neighbour for continuing or omitting that practice. At the time of celebration, it was ordered that the ancient mass should be said in the accustomed manner down to the end of the communion of the priest. So that those who considered it desirable to hide under the disguise of a dead language, what are deemed the mysteries of consecration, were gratified in this particular. They were not, indeed, allowed to calculate upon the long continuance of such gratification, for the rubric enjoining that the mass should be celebrated as usual, intimated that it was only to be so "until other order shall be provided." After the priest had communicated, he was directed to turn towards the congregation, and to address them in English with the exhortation still used, for the same purpose, with some alterations, chiefly verbal. This was

to be followed by a recommendation to unrepentant blasphemers, adulterers, malicious or envious persons to abstain for a while from the holy table, lest their participation should give occasion to the devil to enter into them, as he did into Judas. For the sake of rendering this more effective, a short pause was to be made when the priest had concluded, in order that any selfconvicted offender might avoid the presumption of challenging, while yet in his sins, a communion with his God, and that the clergyman, by noticing any person's departure, might know where his spiritual aid and counsel was most urgently required. After this followed the short invitation to communicants, the confession, and the absolution, nearly as they yet stand in our service books. The well-selected texts of Scripture yet prescribed in this office, except the second, which was omitted, were next to be read; and after them that beautiful expression of humility with which the officiating minister is to our own times directed to kneel down by the side of the Lord's table. This being ended, the priest was to arise from his knees and administer the consecrated elements in both kinds, first to any clergymen present, and afterwards to the people. With the bread, he was to say, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body unto everlasting life:" with the cup, "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy soul unto everlasting life." The congregation having communicated, was then to

be dismissed with the blessing. In providing for this sacrament, it was ordered that the small round cakes or wafers, which had been usual, should be continued, and that, according to the Romish custom, water should be mingled with the wine. But it was enjoined that each of these wafers should be broken into two or more pieces, and that if the wine first consecrated were not found sufficient, more should be consecrated by repeating those words in the canon of the mass which relate to the cup. There was, however, in this case to be no new elevation".

It is obvious, that as the Eucharistic bread anciently was selected from the offerings of the congregation, it must have been of the same description as that prepared for ordinary purposes. Such accordingly, it is known, was the fact, in the primitive Church. (Cave's Primitive Christianity, 443.) The use, however, of small cakes at the Holy Communion appears to be ancient, for they are mentioned, but not with approbation, by Gregory I. towards the close of the sixth century. At the beginning of the thirteenth age these hosts, as they are called, seem to have become general, and Honorius III. who decreed the worship of them, ordered that they should be marked with a cross. (Hospinian, 371.) They are delivered whole to the communicants; an usage which the compilers of King Edward's first Communion-service thought proper to break through, both in compliance with the practice of the primitive Church, and to render them significant emblems of Christ's body broken on the cross. As pieces of these hosts were to be distributed, the following rubric was provided: "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 Christ."

"The Alliance of Divine Offices, by Hamon L'Estrange, Esq. Lond. 1699. p. 337.