'The indicative form of absolution was likewise the invention of this age': a 1796 Prayer Book commentary, absolution, and erroneous eucharistic practices

Today's post is a slight excursus as we continue to reflect on John Shepherd's discussion of absolution in A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer, Volume I (1796). Having considered last week his emphasis on the precatory nature of the presbyter's ministry of absolution - that is, invoking God's forgiveness - before turning to see how Shepherd regards the administration of the Lord's Supper and Baptism as also sharing this precatory character, a footnote caught my attention:

Unleavened bread, wafers, the elevation and adoration of the host, and the putting of it into the mouth of the communicant, all of them the offspring of transubstantiation, are not many years younger than their parent; and must all be ranked with the sacerdotal corruptions and superstitions, for which the thirteenth century is distinguished. The positive or indicative form of absolution was likewise the invention of this age.

The footnote concerns how the Holy Communion was administered to the laity in what Shepherds terms "the Latin church":

the host is put by the priest into the mouth of the communicant, and that the wine is prohibited to all the laity: both of which practices, as the protestants have shewn, and some of the more learned and liberal Romanists admit, are contrary to the usage of the primitive Christians.

Shepherd, no doubt, would have been confused - indeed, shocked - to learn that not much more than half a century later, these practices (with the exception of communion in one kind) would be found in some Church of England parish churches. The above footnote points to why he regarded such practices as doctrinally significant: they undermine the precatory nature of the Holy Communion. In the Prayer of Humble Access, in the Prayer of Consecration, and in the words of administration, it is prayed that the communicant would, by faith, partake of the Lord's Body and Blood. The medieval Latin practices, by contrast, reflect the "positive or indicative form of absolution" that emerged in the same era - they declare what is happening without any necessity for faith and repentance.

Regarding the use of unleavened bread, Shepherd is presumably indicating that the fact it is not clearly bread suggests a natural rather than sacramental identity with the body of Christ, the latter, unlike the former, requiring repentance and faith. In addition to this, communion in one kind further undermines the precatory nature of the administration of the holy Sacrament, by removing the petition that accompanies the giving of the Cup.

We return, in other words, to a key phrase which underpins Shepherd's understanding of absolution, the words heard in the pronouncing of the 'Remission of sin' at Morning and Evening Prayer:

He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel. Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance ...

Shepherd is rejecting practices which obscure the precatory nature of the absolution that is faithful partaking of the Lord's Supper. Such practices were the equivalent of the indicative form of absolution ('I absolve thee'), as they obscured the truth that the absolution received in the partaking of the Holy Communion - the spiritual food of Christ's body and blood - required communicants, in the words of the Catechism, to "repent them truly of their former sins ... [and] have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ".

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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