at the coronation of James I, for which the service in the Liber Regalis was first translated, and adapted to the Communion Office of the Prayer Book. And this same order has been observed ever since at every coronation. Clearly, therefore, the authorities of the Church of England do not regard such order of offering as contravening the rubrics of the Prayer Book. Moreover, this interpretation of the rubric has the endorsement of no less an authority than Bishop Andrews, who in his Notes on the Prayer Book, directs the Priest to offer first the bread and wine, and afterwards the alms of the people. In thus directing, there is no doubt that he was only continuing what had been the traditional practice of the Church of England prior to his time. And that the practice was observed by other Bishops in the seventeenth century is clear from the fact that in 1637 it was the order of offering prescribed by Bishop Field at the consecration of Abbey Dore Church."

VII. OF THE ORATIONES SUPER OBLATA.

The "Let us pray for the whole state," etc., is the equivalent of the Orate fratres, the relative position of which it occupies, and some of the ancient versions of which it is not unlike. Thus for example in a missal of Narbonne of 1528 the form of the Orate was, "I beseech you brethren, to pray for the state of the holy Church of God, and for me, a miserable sinner, that the Almighty and merciful Lord would vouchsafe pro

• Minor Works. Ang. Cath. Lib., p. 153.

7 See The Form and Order of the Consecration and Dedication of the Parish Church of Abbey Dore, upon Palm Sunday, 1634. Edited by the Rev. J. Fuller Russell.

pitiously and graciously to receive our sacrifice." The later part of the Orate, which refers to the Sacrifice, was a late addition, and was not placed in the Roman missal until the year 1551. "Anciently the Priest said 'Pray,' or 'Pray for me,' or 'Pray for me a sinner.'" Anciently, too, no response was made in the Orate, but the Priest immediately turned to the altar and said the Secret, just as now with us, the Priest having said, "Let us pray for the whole state," etc., turns to the altar and says the prayers which follow.

It has been usual to regard the prayer, or rather the series of prayers, for Christ's Church militant as a part of the Canon misplaced, and so to treat them ritually after the example of the Te igitur. But this implies that our Communion office is in disorder, an admission which one should be slow to make. It is true that these prayers formed part of the Canon in the Prayer Book of 1549; but they now occupy the relative position, and fulfil the office of the Secreta of the Roman and old English Uses, and ought to be treated accordingly. The first of these prayers, like the first Secreta of the Roman missal, is a verbal oblation of the unconsecrated gifts, and in phraseology is very like many of the old Secrets or Orationes super oblata. Take the following examples from the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, as given by Muratori: "Accept, we beseech thee, O Lord, the oblations of our bounden service, and graciously sanctify thy gifts; through," etc. (col. 33.) "Accept, we beseech thee, O Lord, the prayers of thy people, together with the oblation of

1 Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit., t. i. p. 393. 2 Romsée, Sensus Litteralis, etc., ii. xix. v. 3 Le Brun, Explication, etc., in loc.

hosts, and defend us, who celebrate thy mysteries, from all dangers; through," etc. (col. 41.) "We beseech thee, O Lord, that having graciously received our oblations, thou wouldst also mercifully incline unto thyself our rebellious wills; through," etc. (col. 47.)

The other prayers which in our rite follow the oblation of the bread and wine, beginning: "We beseech thee also so to direct," etc., may be compared with the Secrets: De S. Maria, Contra persecutores Ecclesia, Vel. pro Papa, which are ordinarily said in the modern Roman rite. It may be interesting to observe, as bearing on our own practice, that anciently the Ambrosian missal directed the Orationes super oblata to be said, not secretly, but clara voce, or alta voce. Down to the ninth or tenth century no prayers were prescribed between the Offertorium and the Secreta, and the only verbal oblation of the unconsecrated gifts was the saying of the one appointed Secreta. In this respect the old Roman liturgy resembled the Communion office of the Prayer Book. It must not be supposed, however, that because prayers over the oblations other than the Secret are not found in the old Roman liturgy, that therefore they are not ancient. On the contrary, such prayers were in the ancient Gallican and Mozarabic liturgies, and it was from these liturgies that those now in use were derived, and they are probably the most ancient features of the Latin missals. The prayers: Suscipe Offerimus, In spiritu, and Veni Sanctificator, were for more than a thousand years substantially, and almost in the same words, in the ancient missals of the churches of Spain. It would seem that the Church of Rome, which toward the end Simmons, Lay Folks Mass Book, Notes p. 267.

of the eleventh century set aside this missal, in order that it might give place to the Roman, borrowed these prayers of the oblation from the very missal which she suppressed. She also received in the eleventh century the prayer, Suscipe, Sancta Trinitas, which had been in use in Milan, and in many churches of France."5

VIII. OF GENUFLECTING IN THE CANON.

It has been asserted repeatedly, that in England "it was not the custom for the priest to genuflect after the modern fashion while standing at the altar to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice." This broad statement is an entire mistake, as we shall proceed to show.

In ascertaining whether any given ceremonial action was a custom of the Church of England, one must not confine his attention to the rubrics of the liturgical books. In many instances these rubrics were manifestly inadequate, and had to be supplied by directions from other sources. And therefore recourse must be had to contemporaneous documents, which bear witness to what was the recognized and actual practice, before we can assert that this or that ceremony was not a legitimate custom of the Church of England. The mere silence of the rubrics is no proof that a ceremony was not observed, and observed lawfully. The Blessing at the end of Mass is a case in point. Here was not only a ceremonial gesture, but a formula which seems to have been generally used, although prescribed by no English missal, so far as I know. Yet the Convocation of 1543 speaks of it as a recognized usage:

Le Brun, Explication de la Messe, p. iii. art. vi. cf. The Genius of the Roman Rite, by Edmund Bishop.

1 Notes on Ceremonial, 3d ed., p. 181.

"The priest gives us at our departure sometimes the Benediction in the name of the whole Trinity." And so with regard to "genuflection at consecration," it does not follow, because this gesture "has never been ordered by the liturgical books of the Church of England," that it was not observed, or that it was regarded as an unlawful novelty.

That the practice of the people was to kneel at the consecration, if not kneeling before, there is abundant evidence. It was also the practice of the clergy in choir to kneel or genuflect, and was explicitly ordered. Many directions to this effect might be cited, but one which is at my hand will suffice as a sample: "Item volumus et ordinamus quod in magna missa omnes presentes in choro, canonici, vicarii, cuiuslibet gradus ministri, in elevatione Corporis Christi ob reverentiam tanti sacramenti et ut laici et circumstantes ad maiorem devotionem ex hoc frequentius provocentur, sicut olim in ipsa ecclesia fieri consuevit, flexis ad terram genibus et cum omni humiliatione provolutis suas ex corde devotas ad Deum fundant orationes."3

Now it requires no great stretch of the imagination to infer that this act of reverence, observed at the consecration by both people and clergy, would also be followed by the celebrating Priest, although like some other ceremonies it was not directed by the rubrics of the missal. And that, as a matter of fact, the Priest did genuflect at the consecration we know positively from the testimony of eyewitnesses. There is, first, the evidence of Becon. He is describing the ceremonies of the Mass as he had seen them: "After ye have

Collier Eccl. Hist., 1852, v. p. 117.

3 Reynolds, Ordinale et Statuta Wellen, p. 74.