I

One of the first proceedings of the reign in matters of religion was in connection with the Book of Common Prayer. A paper drawn up at this time contains a suggestion that “such learned men as be meet to show their minds herein” should compile a book, which, after being submitted to and approved by the queen, might be brought before Parliament. Nothing is known as to any action of this kind; but it is possible that a letter written by Edmund Guest, afterwards Bishop of Rochester and later Bishop of Salisbury, to William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, had reference to a draft book so formed. In this letter Guest advocated the use of the surplice at the Communion as well as at other times for the reason that “if we should use another garment herein, it should seem to teach us that higher and better things be given by it than be given by the other service, which we must not believe”; the division of the Communion into two parts, so that only those about to receive the Sacrament should be allowed to remain in the church for the celebration; the disuse of “praying for the dead” “in the Communion because it doth seem to make for the sacrifice of the dead, and also because, as it was used in the First Book, it makes some of the faithful to be in heaven and to need no mercy, and some of them to be in another place and to lack help and mercy”; the disuse of the petition beginning “Hear us, O merciful Father,” in the prayer of consecration in the Book of 1549 “because it is taken to be so needful for the consecration that the consecration is not thought to be without it, which is not true, for petition is no part of consecration,” and, secondly, because “it prays that the bread and wine may be Christ’s body and blood, which makes for the popish Transubstantiation”; and that the Sacrament should be received in the hands of the people, and either standing or kneeling. This letter of Guest’s is sufficient to show the existence of a party of divines in favour of a return to some of the formularies of the reign of Edward VI. and regarding the general features of the Book of 1552 as preferable to those of the Book of 1549.

Meanwhile, an opposite line was being taken by Convocation. In January, 1559, the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury drew up articuli cleri for presentation to the Upper House, asserting the three propositions which had been affirmed in 1554 in connection with the trial of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, declaring the real presence of the natural body and blood of Christ under the species of bread and wine, the absence of any substance of bread and wine in the consecrated Sacrament, and that a propitiatory sacrifice is offered in the Mass. A little later the propositions received the approval of the bishops.

At a provincial council of the Scottish Church, held in March and April, 1559, a careful statement of the traditional doctrine was made in view of the circumstances of the time. It included the following articles about the Eucharist:—

“On the existence of the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In the Sacrament of the Eucharist the real body of our Lord Jesus Christ is actually present; that is, His real flesh and real blood, nay the whole Christ, God and Man. Wherefore in it we rightly adore, not the bread, not the wine, not the species which are presented to the bodily eyes, but our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified, whether in the Mass or outside the Mass, wherever the Eucharist has been placed, or whenever it is carried about by the priest in the public acts of prayer.

“On the Communion of the laity in one kind only. Communion in both kinds is not necessary to salvation for the laity; but in accordance with the lawful permission of the Church it is enough to give the Sacrament in one kind only, that of bread; and it must be believed that the flesh and blood, and therefore the whole Christ, are received under one kind by itself.

“On the utility of the Mass. The sacrifice of the Mass, which was instituted for the remembrance of the passion of Christ, is of profit to the living and the dead by the virtue of His passion.”

A Godly Exhortation issued by Archbishop Hamilton in 1559 in consequence of the action of this Provincial Council of the Scottish Church, which came to be known as The Two-penny Faith, contains the following statement of doctrine as part of an exhortation to receive the Sacrament worthily:—

“Under the form of bread, which I am now presently to minister to you, is contained truly and really our Saviour Jesus Christ, whole in Godhead and manhood, that is, both His body and blood and soul conjoined with His Godhead, who in His mortal life offered Himself upon the cross to the Father of heaven an acceptable sacrifice for our redemption from the devil, sin, eternal death, and hell. And now in His immortal life sits at the right hand of the eternal Father in heaven, whom in this Blessed Sacrament invisibly contained under the form of bread I am to minister to you.”