THE BISHOPS AND THE REVISED PRAYER BOOK • [To the
Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In your issue of August 31st, " A Theological Student " makes the following statement :-
" He (i.e., any Catholic, Roman, Anglican, or Orthodox) adores Christ specially present—after the manner of the Incarnation— in those elements which are the outward and visible signs of His Presence."
In the reign of Henry V., Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was burned as a heretic. At his trial he was required by the Archbishop to subscribe to the doctrine of the Church in the following terms (the original spelling is preserved) :- " The faith and determination of holichutche touehyng the blisful sacrament of the inter is this, that after the sacramental wordis ben sayd by a prest in his masse the materiel bred that was bifore is turned into Cristes veray Body and the materiel wyn that was bifore is turned into Crystes verray Blood, and so then levoth in the auter no materiel breed ne materiel wyn, the whiche there were there bifore the seyinge of the Sacramental wordis."
It is fair to ask whether this is the doctrine professed to- day by every Catholic, Roman, Anglican, or Orthodox.
And if so, is it the doctrine of the Church of -England, as set forth in that Church's formularies ?—I am, Sir, &c., St. John of Malta, Newquay, Cornwall. F. W. PAUL.
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