'Draw near': the Laudians, the chancel, and communicants

Richard Montagu's Articles of Enquiry in the Primary Visitation of the Diocese of Norwich, 1638, provide evidence of how the Table against the east wall, and railed, did not prevent the customary approach of communicants to the chancel at the Exhortation during the Communion:

Before the communicants ascend up into the Chancell out of their seats in the church, that exhortation is to be said, which in the Communion-book beginneth "We be come together at this time, &c.". And then this exhortation, "Dearly beloved, we are come together, &c.". When after this exhortation, the communicants are come up into the Chancell, before they dispose themselves to kneel in their severall places (which are orderly and decently to be appointed for them) this is to be said, "You that do truly and earnestly repent you of your sinnes, &c.".

What makes Montagu's support for the custom particularly interesting is that his fellow-Laudian John Cosin had indicated disapproval of the practice in 1638.  In his Second Series of Notes on the Book of Common Prayer, Cosin said of "draw near with faith" that it "seems to be an inviting of the people that are to communicate, to come into the quire, where the communion-table is placed".  He also admitted "it be no new thing".  He criticised it, however, on the grounds that "anciently it was not so", for "none of the lay-people were permitted" to enter the quire, except to present the alms and oblations.  The administration of the Sacrament, he noted, was then "in the body of the church".  

Despite Cosin's opposition, Laudian approval of the custom is also seen in Jeremy Taylor's Communion Office (1658), written during the Commonwealth when the usurping authorities prohibited the use of the Book of Common Prayer.  Taylor includes the following rubric in his rite, placed immediately after the offertory:

the people shall come up to the H. Table where it is the custom, or near it, where it is most fit to communicate.

Furthermore, the 1662 revision - heavily influenced by Laudian concerns - introduced a rubric, before the Third Exhortation, which reflected the custom:

At the time of the Celebration of the Communion, the Communicants being conveniently placed for the receiving of the holy Sacrament ...

The post-1662 neo-Laudian High Church tradition continued the practice. Ken's 1675 A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College includes a short prayer "At Going to the Altar" before the prayers given for "At the Offertory" and "At the Consecration".  Also in 1675, Thomas Comber's A Companion to the Altar implies that at 'Ye that do truly', the communicants approached the altar:

Guests being come, and the provisions ready, it was the office of the Governour of the Feast (John 2. 9) to make them sit down, which place the Disciples sustained in that miraculous feeding of the 5,000 (John 6.10) as an Emblem that they, and their Successors should do it ever after in this Cælestial Banquet: Thus our Church, according to the Custom of the Primitive Christians, orders the Priest to invite the Communicants to draw near.

By contrast, Thomas Bennet's 1709 A Paraphrase with Annotations upon the Book of Common Prayer insists that communicants move closer to the altar before the Exhortation 'Dearly beloved in the Lord', not at 'Ye that do truly':

The drawing near which is here mentioned cannot possibly relate to their bodily Approach. For the Church supposes the Communicants to be conveniently plac'd for receiving, before the late Exhortation was read, as appears from the Rubric prefix'd to it.

Finally, Wheatly's A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, published in 1714. Wheatly commends the practice of communicants moving to closer to the altar at 'draw near with faith':

I think it would be more proper if all the Communicants were, at these words, to come from the more remote parts of the church as near to the Lord's Table as they could.

The illustration above is from Wheatly's 1714 publication, with communicants gathered kneeling in the chancel, as the Prayer of Consecration is said.  It demonstrates the common practice maintained by Laudians and the post-1662 High Church tradition, continuing at least into the early decades of the 18th century, of communicants gathering in the chancel at some point between the offertory and the 'draw near with faith'.  

This has some consequences for how depictions of Cranmer's intentions for the administration of the Sacrament are often interpreted and how this relates to Laud.  Laudian rails and east-end positioning of the Table did not prevent or hinder the customary gathering of communicants in the chancel.  In fact, as we have seen, Laudian and Restoration High Church sources, continuing after the Revolution, explicitly maintained the practice.  Rails and east-end Tables were entirely compatible with the Cranmerian practice of drawing near.