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The Communion Table and Its Furnishings

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The Communion Table and Its Furnishings The Communion Table and its Furnishings. ONE of the great changes made at the Reformation was the putting away of the altars at which the mediæval priests had offered the unbloody sacrifice, and the substituting, for such altars, of tables at which the faithful sat down to partake of the Lord's Supper. The Roman conception of a sacrificing priesthood was replaced by the Protestant one of an evangelical ministry of the Word and Sacraments. New views of the Eucharist, really old ones revived, led to new orders for the communion service, and the idea of the ordinance as a feast took the place of that which made it a sacrifice. Nor was it only among the extreme reformers that such views were to be found: The word " altar " finds no place in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, though it had a place in the First Prayer Book of King Edward VI.(') Even in the Church of Rome there were those who thought that the " feast " side of Holy Communion should be emphasised, as the well known picture of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci shows. In Scotland, Archbishop Hamilton, in the Catechism he published in 1552, calls upon the people to come to the " buird of God." Altars disappeared in Scotland(2) as in England at the Reformation ; but, whereas in the southern Kingdom they were replaced by more or less permanent wooden tables, in our land their place appears in many instances to have been left empty. It is possible, some might say probable, that in Scotland also a wooden table was set up where the former altar had stood.(3) The first Book of Discipline enjoined that among other things which each congregation should possess were " Tables for the ministration of the Lord's Supper " ; but these appear to have been usually temporary erections. Thus at Edinburgh, in 1561, we find the Dean of Guild paying for " ane daill to be ane tabill to the Communion " and also for nails with which to fix it up. At that time it was customary for the communicants to sit at the table, which was usually long enough to admit a considerable number. As time went on there is no doubt that permanent tables were provided in some churches. Thus it was made a complaint against the minister of Melrose, in 1638, that he had made the old communion table into a wagon to lead his peats.(4) In 1643 the Solemn League and Covenant was signed at " the Communion Table in " the Kirk of Carnock. The Presbytery book of Strathbogie mentions, under date 1642, that communion tables had been erected at his own expense by the Laird of Frendraucht in his parish kirk. In 1649 the Cromwellian soldiers burned the com- munion table and kirk seats at Castleton, in Roxburgh.() There is ample evidence that permanent tables were in use during the first Episcopacy, 1610-1638, and what is probably a representation of one of these is preserved, as an engraving, on a com- munion paten belonging to Trinity College Church, Edinburgh. The paten, which bears the date 1633, shows a table with two communion cups and a plate with four slices of bread thereon. Underneath are two flagons. At Paisley, in 1637, it was (1) It still appears in the English Coronation Rite. (2) The writer knows of only one Sottish Mediæval altar still in situ. It is in the Chapel of Innerpeffray, near Crieff. The Chapel is in good preservation but it does not appear ever to have been used for Protestant worship. (3) The well known " Darnley Cenotaph " picture is dated 1567, and shows the interior of a church with a communion table standing against the wall. The table is draped all round with a patterned cloth, a plain one with small tassels attached being laid on the top. If we could be certain that the church is meant to be a Scots one, then the picture might give evidence of the existence of a communion table at the period indicated. This, however, is very doubtful, as the picture was painted in London. (4) Similar accusations were made against a number of the supporters of Episcopacy at that period. (5) Session Records. The statement is made that the soldiers were " commanded by Colonels Bright and Pride—the latter the hero of ` Pride's Purge '—and under the conduct of General Cromwell on their return to England." In addition to destroying the furniture of the Church, they stole the minister's library and destroyed " the books of Session with which they lighted their tobacco pipes." So much for the " godly men " who formed the English Puritan Army ! THE HOLY TABLE, CRATHIE PARISH CHURCH. (The King Edward VII. Memorial, presented by King George V.). THE HOLY TABLE, ST CUTHBERT'S PARISH CHURCH, EDINBURGH. (With runner and super-frontal of fair white linen). 2 Church Service Society Annual alleged that the minister had cast away the long table and set up a smaller one " altarwise with a fixed rail about it," from which he delivered the Elements to the worshippers. It is probable, however, that this was a somewhat exceptional case, and that while there were small tables introduced, sometimes known as head tables, the long tables were also retained. The combination of the small " head table " with the long communion tables continued up to our own day. An interesting example of the practice of the Covenanters can still be seen on the moor of Irongray, in Galloway, where the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was celebrated at a conventicle in 1678, the congregation numbering over three thousand. The " tables," which are now grass covered, " consist of four rows of flat irregular blocks of stones disposed in straight lines. At one end is a circular pile of stones about four feet in height whereon the sacred elements were placed." At Galston, in 1678, there was evidently a " head table," for among the properties of the congregation were two long communion " cloaths," together with a short one " for the mid-table." At Rothesay, in 1718, three communion tables are mentioned, one being square, " on which the elements stand." Two year later, we find that at Cardross the possessions included a table in addition to " two communion tables," evidently only the long ones being dignified with the latter title. Dr Leishman(') remarks that, towards the end of the 18th Century, " the separate table for consecration began to be introduced (in Scotland) not without murmurs," and some of these older tables are believed to be still in existence. When the mediæval church at Sanquhar was renovated in 1824, the communion table was removed to the parish school.(2) It was a well made oaken table with a solid front. A new table was provided, and it is somewhat surprising to know that it was enclosed within rails.(") At Carnock, when the new church was opened in 1840, ;there was placed in it a com- munion table and chair made from the panels of the 17th Century pulpit which had been removed from the pre-Reformation church.(4) It is worth while noting that the minister at that time, Rev. William Giston, refers to these as " an ecclesiastical chair and table for the communion elements."(5) From that time onwards it may be said that in the majority of Scottish churches what we call communion tables found a place. These were very often plain, and anything elaborate was in danger of being frowned upon by church courts. In 1875 the minister of Duns, Rev. John Macleod (afterwards of Govan) had to .answer a charge of having a table like an " altar " ; (1) but such objections are now rarely, if ever, heard, and in many of our churches the communion table is such that it would not be out of place in a parish church in England. In one respect we have more liberty ; for in Scotland the Holy Table may be of stone or marble. In England, however, only side altars may be of stone ; the high altar must be of wood, stone being illegal. There is only one " furnishing " for the communion table known to the standards of the Church of Scotland,—the white cloth, usually of linen, with which it is covered at the celebration of the Sacrament. This, it need not be said, is a pre-Reformation survival, and, among the questions put to the Reformers by that stalwart upholder (1) Westminster Directory, p. 352. (2) When the school was re-built in the seventies of last century, the old table fell into the hands of a man who used it as a counter in a little shop he had opened. It was taken down about twenty years ago. (3) Rails in England were introduced by Laud. A set of them of 17th Century date can still be seen in the Parish Church of Polwarth, where their survival is due to the fact that they formed a front for the Marchmont family pew. (4) The pulpit bore the date 1674. (5) Evidently he did not approve of the terni " Communion Table" being applied to the small table, thus showing himself more " puritanical " than his distinguished predecessor, John Row, a strict Covenanter. (4) This led to the squib by Professor (afterwards Principal) Story- " There was a tall priest called Macleod Of his altar and font justly proud, But the sophists of Dunse Were upon him at once, And shut up this Popish Macleod." The Communion Table and its Furnishings 3 of the old ways, Ninian Winzet, was one regarding the Scriptural authority, or rather the want of it, for such a covering.
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