[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Stmt,—In your article on the Privy Council judgment you assert
that " the latter [i.e., the Evangelicals] must even turn their backs to the people during the consecration." Is not this an error? The rubric says, "When the priest standing before the table hath so ordered the bread and wine that he may with more readiness and decency break the bread before the people," &e. If, as you suggest, the priest must turn his back to the people, the following paragraph in the rubric would be nomilensical, for he cannot while in that position break the bread before the people. Will not the true rendering be found if another rubric be read with it?—" The table shall stand in the body of the church, or in the chancel, where morning and evening prayer are appointed to be said." Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to state what was the position of the table at the time of the publication of the Prayer Book of 1519. I have seen it stated (but cannot just now quote my authority), that at that time time table generally stood in the body of the Church, and in no case was it placed, as at present, with one side against the wall—and that the side at which the priest should stand when offering the consecrating prayer in order to "break the bread before the people." To comply with both rubrics must not Ritualists and Evangelicals remove the table from its present position, so that its east as well as its west side shall be available for use by the officiating priest ?—I
am, Sir, &c., F. U.
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