as absolute, he compelled the parishes to place their tables sideways, under the east window, and to rail in the enclosure so as to prevent the table being taken down into the church any more. To effect this, he suspended his Suffragans, and Williams, his rival, was even cast into prison and heavily fined. Intense exasperation was produced by these arbitrary proceedings, and the Church of England suffered proportionately in the alienation of

1575 (Canterburie's Doom, p. 98). In 1623, the churchwardens of Wapping were summoned in the Bishop of London's Consistory Court, having been "formerly enjoined to make a rail about the communion table" (Hale's Precedents, p. 15). Udal, in 1641, testifies that rails had been in use from the very beginning of Elizabeth's reign (Scudamore, Not. Euch., p. 174). He himself adopted the Beckington plan of having his rail "square about the table," i.c. on all

four sides of it when set in the middle of the chancel; whereas the Laudian plan of having rails on three sides only, or merely in front, reduced the number of communicants who could partake at the same time at the same Table. St. Martin's Orgars, Cannon Street, for instance, was attacked by Laud, although the Table "stood in the midst of the chancel, compassed on all its sides

with

a very fair rail" (King's Pamphlets, No. 11, p. 3). The truth is that neither in Laud's time nor since has there ever been any law requiring the communicants to receive at the rails. The Church has wisely left the matter to the discretion of the local authorities, subject only to the control of the Ordinary, "if the parties doubt or diversely take" the directions given. Dr. Hook testifies that when he went to Leeds the ancient custom was to administer to the people in their pews. Newman

found the same custom at St. Mary's, Oxford, and followed it. At Trinity College, Cambridge, and Exeter Cathedral, similar usages remained within living memory, and other instances could be readily adduced. There still remain some examples of the arrangement once so common, showing the seats for the communicants ranged round about "God's Board."

At Buckland Monachorum, Devon, the table stood in the midst of the chancel, and was railed in, the communicants knelt round the four sides. That arrangement existed in

Shropshire, as arranged in 1601 (Plate 7, No. 1); and Lyddington, Rutlandshire, 1635 (Plate 7, No. 2), both still remaining.

Four tables are figured: one from Canter. bury (Plate 8, No. 1), for the sake of showing the "Drawing Table" arrangement, which Mr. Murray was the first to describe, by which the table could be lengthened by drawing out the lower

slab at either end SO

as

to nearly double its extent at 66 great feasts of receivings," when the table was often placed in the crossing just outside the chancel entrance. The table at Southwold, Suffolk, seen in Plate 8, No. 2, is now lying disused in the belfry; it illustrates the absolute liberty as to shape which was allowed from the very first. Hence standing at the "north side of the table" meant merely standing northward of the table, irrespective of whether the table itself were round, square, or polygonal. The ideal aimed at was to symbolise the meal-table of disciples publicly partaking together of the "one loaf" at one and the same time; or, as the 82nd Canon expresses it," that the communicants

more conveniently and IN MORE NUMBER, may communicate with the said Minister." These words were taken from the "Order" appended to the Injunction of Elizabeth in 1559, thus showing the continuity of the teaching of the Reformed Church, which has nothing in common with those sham "altars" of sacrifice, which the imitators of Rome are now seeking to substitute for the Table of the Lord.

very recent times. See Fuller, Life of Bishop Davenant, p. 420.

The views given in the various plates are from photos taken by Mr. R. H. Murray, of Worcester. They show the older arrangement of the chancels, as at Hayle, Gloucestershire, as it existed before 1855, and as it still exists with slight alterations (Plate 2, No. 1, p. 97); Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, as it appeared before 1875 (Plate 2, No. 2, p. 97); Langley Chapel,

Plate 9 gives views of two other tables, No. 1 being in the disused chancel of Ombersley, Worcestershire, probably about 1572. Bishop Sandys (of Worcester) had a country house near, and died in 1588. A paten belonging to that church, dated 1571, may have been presented by him. There is an inscription running round the table, "Whosoever shall

eate this bread and drinke this cup of the Lor || d vnworthily shal be gvilty of the body and blood of the Lord ||." The spelling and wording are as here given. The marks added indicate the inscription as found on the four sides of the table. The table is over 7 ft. long and nearly 3 ft. wide, very massive; the legs have suffered from dry rot. Plate 9, No. 2, shows the table in Stottesdon, Shropshire, which is carved on all four sides, showing that it was intended when in use to be seen from all sides. It has the date of 1595. The top is loose, as in all the Elizabethan tables. The Elizabethan and Jacobean tables were often handsomely ornamented with carving, and the ornamentation was carried all round the four sides of the table, showing that it was intended to be brought out and "spread" in the midst of the congregation. Sometimes the text ran round the four sides. In height (about 2 ft. 6 in.), as well as in general character, these tables resembled the handsome domestic tables which at the same period adorned the houses of the upper classes. So much so, that it is at times questionable whether some of the tables which still remain in manor-houses, &c., may not at one time have been used for tables at which the Lord's Supper was in old times actually administered in village churches. [J. T. T.] List of church chancels with seats on north, south, and east, in existence now or within a few years back :

Wiggenhall St. Mary, Norfolk; Shillingford, Berks; Warnegay, Berks; Shrivenham, Berks; Wimborne; Shotswell, Warwickshire; Brill, Buckinghamshire; Waltham, Leicestershire; Dartmouth, Devon; Langley, Salop (Plate 7, p. 371);1 Over Whichendon; St. Michael's, Coventry; Mallwydd, Montgomeryshire; Puddleton, near Dorchester1 (with the addition of rails on four sides); St. Martin's Orgars, Cannon St. (see King's Pamphlets, "E. 173," No. 17); Orford (see Dean Howson, Before the Table; p. 43); Ermington, Devon (see Bloxam, p. 177). Double rows of rails were formerly found at Westbury-on-Trym, near Bristol; St. Peter's, Bristol; All Saints, Bristol; Milverton, Somersetshire; Folke, Dorsetshire (with the addition of rails on three sides); Hayle, Gloucestershire (Plate 2, p. 97); 1 Deerhurst, Gloucestershire; Wynchcombe, Gloucestershire (Plate 2, p. 97); Austen Fryers, London. Dean Howson mentions (Before the Table, p. 167), that till the beginning of this century the Mayor and Corporation of Dover used to have their seats east of the Communion Table.

1

Chancels with rails on four sides are found at: Lyddington, Rutlandshire1 (see Plate 7,

1 In existence now.

p. 371), 1635, 12 ft. x 12 ft. enclosure; Bloxam, Branscombe, Devonshire; Puddleton, Dorsetshire.3 [R. H. M.] LORETO.-The Virgin Mary was called in French, Notre Dame de Lorette, from the site of a building at Loretto in Italy called Santa Casa (The Holy House), whither the Virgin's dwelling at Nazareth is said to have been miraculously transported. In 1291 it was threatened with destruction by the Turks, and was carried by angels first into Dalmatia to a hill at Tersato, where its sacredness was attested by miraculous cures and an appearance of the Virgin, as well as by investigations caused to be made at Nazareth by the Governor of Dalmatia. In 1294 angels carried it to a wood near Recanati, and from this wood (lauretum), or from the name of its owner (Laureta), it derived its name the house of the glorified Virgin in Laureto." In 1295 it was removed to its present hill. Bulls in favour of the shrine at Loreto were issued in 1491 and 1507. The latter alludes to the translation of the house with some caution "as is piously believed and as the popular report is." Innocent XII., at the end of the seventeenth century, appointed a "mass with a special office" for the Feast of the Translation of the Holy House, and the Spanish Breviary still enjoins the keeping of the feast (December 10). [T. H. L. L.] LOTTERIES.-A lottery is a game of hazard in which small sums are risked for the chance of obtaining larger ones. Readers of Dickens' Pictures from Italy will remember his graphic description of a lottery at Naples. The box containing the numbers is placed upon a table in full view of a crowded house. Then a small boy is hoisted up beside the box. His right arm is bared to the shoulder ready for plunging down into the mysterious chest. Then the Church comes on the scene.

"There is a murmur of irrepressible agita. tion. In the midst of it the priest puts his head into the sacred vestments, and pulls the same over his shoulders. Then he says a silent prayer; and dipping a brush into the pot of holy water, sprinkles it over the box and over the boy, and gives them a double barrelled blessing."

The lottery is the ordinary mode of raising money in the Church of Rome. She may call it a bazaar, or a drawing of prizes, but it is essentially a game of chance. A new church has to be erected. A meeting is called and prizes invited. Then books of tickets are printed off. A carriage and pair may be won by the purchaser of a sixpenny ticket. A fat sheep, a cameo presented by our Holy Father the Pope," a case of brandy-these are speci

66

"In existence now.

3 Three out of the four rails only remain now.