THE ALTAR Sir,—Lord Grimthorpe was hasty in ruling that there
is no altar in the Church of England.
While the Prayer Book always refers to the Holy Table, and employs no other term, the Coronation Rites which arc formularies of the Church of England, from that of James I down to that of Queen Elizabeth IL refer only to the Altar. A continuous use of the latter
term can be traced in official documents right back to the Reformation; such as Bishop Montague's Visitation Articles of 1638, 'Is your Communion Table, or Altar, of stone, wainscot, or joiner's work, strong, fair, and decent?'; or the Canterbury Cathedral inven- tory of 1735 which records 'the Altar hanging and Table Cloth of crimson velvet laced with Gold'. In books of devotion, by Bishops as well as by lesser lights, there is a continuous use of the term. Hierurgia A tzglicana, Part I. will afford many instances.
'Perhaps Bishop Overall in his Notes of c. 1619, well summed up the controversy in these words—'For the word "table" here stands not exclusively, as if it might not be called an altar, but to shew the indifference and liberty of the name; as of old it was called Mensa Domini, the one having reference to the participation, the other to the oblation, in the Eucharist.'— Yours faithfully, W. I. CROOME
Barton Mill House, Cirencester, Glos
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