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munion, shall at the charge of the parish, with the advice and direction of the Minister, provide a sufficient quantity of fine white bread, and of good and wholesome wine for the number of communicants that shall from time to time receive there: which wine we require to be brought to the Communion Table in a clean and sweet standing pot, or stoop of pewter, if not of purer metal.

XXI. The Communion to be thrice a year received.

In every Parish Church and Chapel where Sacraments are to be administered within this realm, the holy Communion shall be administered by the Parson, Vicar, or Minister, so often, and at such times as every parishioner may communicate, at the least thrice in the year (whereof the feast of Easter to be one) according as they are appointed by the Book of Common Prayer. Provided, That every Minister as oft as he administereth the Communion, shall first receive that Sacrament himself. Furthermore, no bread or wine newly brought shall be used: but first the words of institution shall be rehearsed when the said bread and wine be present upon the Communion Table. Likewise the Minister shall deliver both the bread and wine to every communicant severally.

XXII.-Warning to be given beforehand for the Communion. Whereas every lay person is bound to receive the holy Communion thrice every year, and many notwithstanding do not receive that Sacrament once in a year: we do require every Minister to give warning to his Parishioners publicly in the Church at Morning Prayer, the Sunday before every time of his administering that holy Sacrament, for their better preparation of themselves: which said warning we enjoin the said parishioners to accept and obey, under the penalty and danger of the law.

XXIII. Students in Colleges to receive the Communion four times a year.

In all Colleges and Halls within both the Universities, the Masters and Fellows, such especially as have any Pupils, shall be careful that all their said Pupils, and the rest that remain amongst them, be well brought up, and thoroughly instructed in points of Religion, and that they do diligently frequent public Service and Sermons and receive the holy Communion; which we ordain to be administered in all such Colleges and Halls the first or second Sunday of every month, requiring all the said Masters, Fellows and Scholars, and all the rest of the Students, Officers, and all other the servants there so to be ordered, that every one of them shall communicate four times in the year at the least, kneeling reverently and decently upon their knees, according to the order of the Communion Book prescribed in that behalf.

XXIV.-Copes to be worn in Cathedral Churches by those that administer the Communion.

In all cathedral and collegiate Churches, the holy Communion shall be administered upon principal feast-days, sometimes by the Bishop, if he be present, and sometimes by the Dean, and at sometimes by a Canon or Prebendary, the principal Minister using a decent cope, and being assisted with the Gospeller and Epistler agreeably, according to the

advertisements published An. 7 Elizabetha: The said Communion to be administered at such times, and with such limitation as is specified in the Book of Common Prayer, provided, that no such limitation by any construction shall be allowed of, but that all Deans, Wardens, Masters or Heads of cathedral and collegiate Churches, Prebendaries, Canons, Vicars, Petty-canons, Singing-men, and all others of the foundation, shall receive the Communion four times yearly at the least.

XXV.-Surplices and Hoods to be worn in Cathedral Churches when there is no Communion.

In the time of divine service and prayers in all cathedral and collegiate Churches, when there is no Communion, it shall be sufficient to wear Surplices: saving that all Deans, Masters and Heads of collegiate Churches, Canons and Prebendaries being Graduates, shall daily at the times both of prayer and preaching, wear with their Surplices such hoods as are agreeable to their degrees.

XXVI.—Notorious Offenders not to be admitted to the Communion.

No Minister shall in any wise admit to the receiving of the holy Communion, any of his Cure or Flock which be openly known to live in sin notorious without repentance, nor any who have maliciously and openly contended with their neighbours, until they shall be reconciled; nor any Churchwardens or Side-men, who having taken their oaths to present to their Ordinaries all such public offences as they are particularly charged to enquire of in their several parishes, shall (notwithstanding their said oaths, and that their faithful discharging of them is the chief means whereby public sins and offences may be reformed and punished) wittingly and willingly, desperately and irreligiously incur the horrible crime of perjury, either in neglecting, or in refusing to present such of the said enormities and public offences as they know themselves to be committed in their said parishes, or are notoriously offensive to the Congregation there, although they be urged by some of their neighbours, or by their Minister, or by their Ordinary himself, to discharge their consciences by presenting of them, and not to incur so desperately the said horrible sin of perjury.

XXVII.-Schismatics not to be admitted to the Communion.

No Minister when he celebrateth the Communion, shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel, under pain of suspension, nor under the like pain to any that refuse to be present at public prayers, according to the Orders of the Church of England, nor to any that are common and notorious depravers of the Book of Common Prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and of the orders, rites, and ceremonies therein prescribed, or of any thing that is contained in any of the Articles agreed upon in the Convocation, One thousand five hundred sixty and two, or of any thing contained in the Book of ordering Priests and Bishops, or to any that have spoken against and depraved his Majesty's sovereign authority in causes ecclesiastical; except every such person shall first acknowledge to the Minister before the Churchwardens, his repentance for the same, and promise by word (if he cannot write) that he will do so no more; and except (if he can write) he shall first do the same under his handwriting, to be delivered to the Minister, and by him

sent to the Bishop of the Diocese, or Ordinary of the place. Provided, that every Minister so repelling any (as is specified either in this or in the next precedent Constitution) shall upon complaint, or being required by the Ordinary, signify the cause thereof unto him, and therein obey his order and direction.

XXVIII.-Strangers not to be admitted to the Communion.

The Churchwardens or Quest-men, and their assistants, shall mark as well as the Minister, whether all and every of the Parishioners come so often every year to the holy communion, as the Laws and our Constitutions do require and whether any strangers come often and commonly from other parishes to their Church, and shall show their Minister of them, lest perhaps they be admitted to the Lord's Table amongst others, which they shall forbid, and remit such home to their own Parish Churches and Ministers, there to receive the Communion with the rest of their own neighbours.

XXIX.-Fathers not to be Godfathers in Baptism, nor Children, not

Communicants.

No parent shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as Godfather for his own child: nor any Godfather or Godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech, than by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed in that behalf: neither shall any person be admitted Godfather or Godmother to any child at Christening or Confirmation, before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy Communion.

XXX.-The lawful use of the Cross in Baptism, explained.

We are sorry that his Majesty's most princely care and pains taken in the conference at Hampton Court, amongst many other points, touching this one of the Cross in Baptism, hath taken no better effect with many, but that still the use of it in Baptism is so greatly stuck at and impugned. For the further declaration therefore of the true use of this ceremony, and for the removing of all such scruple as might any ways trouble the consciences of them who are indeed rightly religious, following the royal steps of our most worthy King, because he therein followeth the rules of the Scriptures, and the practice of the Primitive Church; we do commend to all the true members of the Church of England, these our directions and observations ensuing.

First, It is to be observed, that although the Jews and Ethnicks derided both the Apostles, and the rest of the Christians, for preaching and believing in him who was crucified upon the Cross; yet all, both Apostles and Christians, were so far from being discouraged from their profession by the ignominy of the Cross, as they rather rejoiced and triumphed in it. Yea, the Holy Ghost by the mouths of the Apostles did honour the name of the Cross (being hateful among the Jews) so far; that under it he comprehended not only Christ crucified, but the force, effects, and merits of his death and passion, with all the comforts, fruits and promises which we receive or expect thereby.

Secondly, The honour and dignity of the name of the Cross, begat a reverend estimation even in the Apostle's times (for ought that is known to the contrary) of the sign of the Cross; which the Christians shortly

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after used in all their actions, thereby making an outward show and profession even to the astonishment of the Jews, that they were not ashamed to acknowledge him for their Lord and Saviour, who died for them upon the Cross. And this sign they did not only use themselves with a kind of glory, when they met with any Jews, but signed therewith their children when they were christened, to dedicate them by that badge to his service, whose benefits bestowed upon them in Baptism, the name of the Cross did represent. And this use of the Sign of the Cross in Baptism was held in the Primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as the Latins, with one consent and great applause. At what time, if any had opposed themselves against it, they would certainly have been censured as enemies of the name of the Cross, and consequently of Christ's merits, the sign whereof they could no better endure. This continual and general use of the Sign of the Cross, is evident by many testimonies of the ancient Fathers.

Thirdly, It must be confessed, that in process of time the Sign of the Cross was greatly abused in the Church of Rome, especially after that corruption of Popery had once possessed it. But the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it. Nay, so far was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or any such like churches, in all things which they held and practised, that, as the apology of the Church of England confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies which do neither endamage the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober men: and only departed from them in those particular points, wherein they were fallen both from themselves in their ancient integrity, and from the Apostolical Churches which were their first founders. In which respect, amongst some other very ancient ceremonies, the Sign of the Cross in Baptism hath been retained in this Church, both by the judgment and practice of those reverend Fathers and great Divines in the days of King Edward the Sixth, of whom some constantly suffered for the profession of the truth: and others being exiled in the time of Queen Mary, did after their return in the beginning of the reign of our late dread Sovereign, continually defend and use the same. This resolution and practice of our Church hath been allowed and approved by the censure upon the Communion Book in King Edward the Sixth his days, and by the harmony of confessions of later years: because indeed the use of this sign in Baptism was ever accompanied here with such sufficient cautions and exceptions against all Popish superstition and error, as in the like cases are either fit or convenient.

First, The Church of England since the abolishing of Popery hath ever held and taught, and so doth hold and teach still, that the Sign of the Cross used in Baptism, is no part of the substance of that Sacrament: for when the Minister dipping the infant in water, or laying water upon the face of it (as the manner also is) hath pronounced these words, I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the infant is fully and perfectly baptized. So as the Sign of the Cross being afterwards used, doth neither add any thing to the virtue and perfection of baptism, nor being omitted doth detract any thing from the effect and substance of it.

Secondly, It is apparent in the Communion Book, that the infant baptized is by virtue of baptism, before it be signed with the Sign of the Cross, received into the congregation of Christ's flock as a perfect mem

ber thereof, and not by any power ascribed unto the Sign of the Cross. So that for the very remembrance of the Cross, which is very precious to all them that rightly believe in Jesu Christ, and in the other respects mentioned, the Church of England hath retained still the sign of it in Baptism: following therein the Primitive and Apostolical Churches, and accounting it a lawful outward ceremony and honourable badge, whereby the infant is dedicated to the service of him that died upon the Cross, as by the words used in the Book of Common Prayer it may appear.

Lastly, The use of the Sign of the Cross in baptism, being thus purged from all Popish superstition and error, and reduced in the Church of England to the primary institution of it, upon those true rules of doctrine concerning thing: indifferent, which are consonant to the Word of God, and the judgments of all the ancient Fathers, we hold it the part of every private man, both Minister and other, reverently to retain the true use of it prescribed by public authority, considering that things of themselves indifferent, do in some sort alter their natures, when they are either commanded or forbidden by a lawful magistrate, and may not be omitted at every man's pleasure contrary to the law, when they be commanded, nor used when they are prohibited.

MINISTERS, THEIR ORDINATION, FUNCTION AND
CHARGE.

XXXI.-Four solemn Times appointed for the making of Ministers. Forasmuch as the ancient Fathers of the Church, led by example of the Apostles, appointed Prayers and Fasts to be used at the solemn Ordering of Ministers; and to that purpose allotted certain times, in which only sacred Orders might be given or conferred; we following their holy and religious example, do constitute and decree, that no Deacons or Ministers be made and ordained, but only upon the Sundays immediately following Jejunia quatuor temporum, commonly called Emberweeks, appointed in ancient time for prayer and fasting (purposely for this cause at their first institution) and so continued at this day in the Church of England: and that this be done in the Cathedral or Parish Church where the Bishop resideth, and in the time of Divine Service, in the presence not only of the Archdeacon, but of the Dean and two Prebend aries at the least, or (if they shall happen by any lawful cause to be let or hindered) in the presence of four other grave persons, being Masters of Arts at the least, and allowed for public preachers.

XXXII. None to be made Deacon and Minister both in one Day.

The Office of Deacon being a step or degree to the Ministry, according to the judgment of the ancient Fathers, and the practice of the Primitive Church; we do ordain and appoint, that hereafter no Bishop shall make any person, of what qualities or gifts soever, a Deacon and a Minister both together upon one day; but that the order in that behalf prescribed in the Book of making and consecrating Bishops, Priests and Deacons, be strictly observed. Not that always every Deacon should be kept from the Ministry for a whole year, when the Bishop shall find good cause to the contrary; but that there being now four times appointed in

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