I CHAP to speak of the mistake in any harsh terms. But a great evil, an evil which in time must have brought all practical religion to ruin, was the result of this mistake. The salvation of souls came to be considered as a matter connected with the intermediate state alone, rather than with this life. Men provided that they might be prayed for after they were dead, and thought it unnecessary to avoid sin while they were living. Every one believed that purgatory was their destination, whatever their lives and deaths might be, a destination which involved a painful and horrible sojourn, but a sojourn that might be shortened and lightened by means of money expended on prayers and masses.8 And thus Private masses bought and sold the growth of chantries symbolized the decay of vital godliness. They clustered around the high altar and overshadowed it; they crept along the aisles of churches and elbowed out the congregations. The Holy Sacrament was put up to sale, contrary to the very first principles of the Church, and those who could bid highest, and buy the greatest number of celebrations, had the best hopes of getting from purgatory to heaven. Such, whatever mitigatory explanations might be offered by the learned, was the real practical force on the popular mind of the mediæval doctrine respecting purgatory; a force from which only very devout souls could escape unharmed. In speaking of the association between the mediaval doctrine of the Holy Eucharist and the Reformation, the object of this chapter will be best answered 8 The reader will observe that there is much in common between this medieval doctrine and the ideas respecting the non-eternity of hell, entertained by many of the present age. 9 I nion in one kind by considering the practical position which that CHAP sacrament held in the religious system which was succeeded by that of the later Church of England. It is well known that when the laity received the CommuHoly Communion in the age immediately preceding the Reformation, they received it only in "one kind;" that is, they received only the consecrated bread. It was, indeed, the custom to give them some wine in a chalice after they had received the consecrated Bread, but this wine was not consecrated, and a special notice was given to the communicants warning them of the fact. It is not so generally known, however, that this "withdrawal of the cup from the laity was a recent custom, and one which met with great resistance in the Church of England. Its recent The custom of communion in one kind was tion in adopted by the early Church, in cases where the England Holy Eucharist was reserved, though perhaps in some cases even then both elements were reserved and administered. But a century before the Reformation period the Council of Constance [A.D. 1415] gave the force of ecclesiastical law to a novel custom which had sprung up, in some countries, of withholding the consecrated wine altogether from the laity. This was done on the pleas that (1) one tlement was sufficient for the perfect reception of "Good men and women y charge yow by the auctoryte of holy churche, that no man nother woman that this day proposyth here to be comenyd (communicated) that he go note to Godds bord, lase than he byleue stedfastlych, that the sacrament that he ys avysyd here to reseue, that yt ys Godds body flesche and blode, yn the forme of bred; and that (which) he receyvythe afterward, ys no thyng ells but wyne and "Teche hem thenne, neuer the later, introduc CHAP the Eucharistic gift, and that (2) greater reverence I was maintained by the non-administration of the fluid element. Only three centuries previously the partial introduction of this practice had been distinctly condemned by the Council of Clermont, presided over by Pope Urban II., in 1095. When it began to creep into England (in its earliest form, that of steeping one element in the other), it was forbidden Resisted by the Convocation of Canterbury [A.D. 1175]. So by English late as 1281, the custom had made way only in the Bishops 2 3 smaller churches; even later, a synodal decree at Exeter orders the clergy to instruct the laity that they receive Christ's blood as well as His body; and as late as 1515, communion in both kinds was the custom in some parishes (at least) in the diocese of Durham. The unconsecrated wine was, in fact, given to the laity to conciliate them; and the notification already referred to respecting it, shows that the belief was still widely spread among them that it was a legitimate part of the Holy Communion. As most readers will remember, the people of Bohemia utterly refused to adopt the novel custom; and the above evidence seems to show that it was far from being easily or universally established in England. Perhaps, it might have been even more generally resisted, and finally repudiated, at an earlier date than 1548, if there had not unhappily been so few communicants in the Church of England at that time. But the general tendency of the medieval theo 1 See a constitution of Archbishop Peckham in Wilkins' Concilia, ii. 52. 2 Wilkins' Concilia, ii. 131. 3 Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, and Norham. See Notes and Queries, II. i. 59. The North of England used to be tenacious of old customs. I balance in about the logy respecting the Holy Eucharist was to diminish CHAP the number of communicants. It regarded the sacrificial aspect of the Blessed Sacrament with so intense a gaze as to be in some degree blinded to its communion aspect. It grasped with a tenacious Want of hold the primitive and patristic theory that it is an medieval offering for the living and the dead, but it loosened theology its hold upon the equally primitive and patristic Eucharist theory that it is the spiritual food of the Christian soul. The consequence was, that few of the laity ever communicated except at Easter, when the law of the Church positively required them to do so.4 At other times, when the Holy Sacrament was celebrated, the laity who were present stood or knelt to hear and to see, but did not go up to the altar to partake. This custom was so general that it made way even in religious communities, and even devout parish priests and spiritual directors taught their flocks that they as effectually received the benefit of the Holy Sacrament by so doing, as if they actually received it into their hands and mouths.5 Both the extravagances of doctrine and practice "Teche thy paresch thus & say, They schulen alle to chyrche come, In that day by costome 5 The following is from that excellent and devout book, "The Mirror of Our Lady," a "Rationale of Divine Service" written for the nuns of Sion in the year 1530 :— "And for asmoche as they y ar presente & here masse may receyue our lorde spually at euery masse, lyke as the preste recyueth hym in ye sacramente, therefore in tyme of Agnus dei, & whyle the preste vsyth, ye oughte to dyspose you ful dylygently & deuoutly, and wt grete feruoure and gostly desyre, to stretche oute your loue and deuociō reuerently to our lorde, that ye lese not so grete a gostly fruyte & be not pryued of ye swetnes of that heuenly feaste wt whyche ye may be fed at eche masse that ye here, if ye wyl desyrously set your harte therto." I Restora commu nion on death of Henry VIII. CHAP here indicated began to give way before the revival of theological learning and original thought. As soon as ever the death of Henry VIII. had set the tion of full clergy free for action, the ancient system of the Church was resuscitated: liturgical provision was made for administering both elements to the laity, and they were exhorted to become frequent communicants. What the Church did was also endorsed by an Act of Parliament, but with such tender regard for others that it declared "this restoring the ancient practice, with reference to the Holy Sacrament, must not be interpreted to the condemning the usage of any Church out of His Majesty's dominions." Scarcely a remonstrance was heard against the reintroduction of the ancient custom; and this general acquiescence is a sign that the restoration fell in with the current of popular feeling. tive devo tion never § 3. SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOMS WHICH NEEDED There were many customs received upon trust and tradition by medieval Englishmen which began at once to be called in question when the increasing intelligence of the Reformation age set Englishmen Imagina thinking. Among such customs were indulgences, image-worship, pilgrimages, the multiplication of acclima- holy-days, the invocation of saints in general, and England Mariolatry in particular. These customs had been imported from Southern Europe, and formed part of an imaginative religion which never took kindly to our northern climate. But the influences of Southern Europe on England had been very deeply tized in |
