'For the Greek church the case is evident': Taylor, the Eucharist, and breathing with both lungs

In Section IV of The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament (1654), Taylor continues to invoke the teachings of the Greek Fathers and practice of the Eastern Churches. Addressing the matter of how consecration of the holy Eucharist is effected, Taylor points to the East against the late Latin and Tridentine view that the Words of Institution are "wholly called 'words of consecration'":

The Greek church universally taught, that the consecration was made by the prayers of the ministering man Justin Martyr calls it "nourishment made eucharistical by prayer;" and Origen calls it "bread made a body, a holy thing by prayer;" so Damascene, "by the invocation and illumination of the Holy Ghost," "they are changed into the body and blood of Christ." But for the Greek church the case is evident and confessed.

Having called upon Greek Fathers to support the view that it is the whole Eucharistic prayer that is consecratory, not merely the Words of Institution, Taylor then presents the "ancient Latin church" as being in agreement with this:

For the ancient Latin church, St. Jerome, reproving certain pert deacons for insulting over priests, uses this expression for the honour of priests above the other; "Ad quorum preces Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur;" "By their prayers the body and blood of Christ are in the sacrament." And St. Austin calls the sacrament "prece mysticâ consecratum."

This view of "the ancient Latin church" as in profound agreement with the Christian East it itself deeply 'Greek'.

Taylor continues by expanding this understanding of eucharistic consecration:

But concerning this, I have largely discoursed in another place. But the effect of the consideration, in order to the present question, is this; that since the change, that is made, is made not naturally, or by a certain number of syllables in the manner of a charm, but solemnly, sacredly, morally, and by prayer, it becomes also the body of our Lord to moral effects, as a consequent of a moral instrument.

'In another place' is a reference to Taylor's earlier work Clerus Domini (1651):

For although it be necessary that the words which in the Latin Church have been for a long time called the words of Consecration (which indeed are more properly the words of Institution) should be repeated in every consecration, because the whole action is not compleated according to Christs pattern, nor the death of Christ so solemnly enunciated without them, yet even those words also are part of a mystical prayer; and therefore as they are not only intended there by way of history or narration ... so also in the most ancient Liturgies, they were not only read as a meer narrative, but also with the form of an address, or invocation: Christi, Let this bread be made the body of Christ, &c. So it is in S. James his Liturgy, S. Clements, S. Marks, and the Greek Doctors ...

And therefore the Greek Churches which have with more severity kept the first and most ancient forms of consecration, than the Latin Church; affirm that the Consecration is made by solemn invocation alone, and the very recitation of the words spoken in the body of a prayer are used for argument to move God to hallow the gifts, and as an expression and determination of the desire.

It was on this 'Eastern' basis that Taylor interpreted how consecration was effected in the Book of Common Prayer eucharistic rite:

... the Liturgy reported to be made by S. James, which is of the most anccient use in the Greek Church, and all Liturgies in the world in their several Canons of communion, do now, and did for ever, mingle solemn prayers together with recitation of Christ's words; The Church of England does most religiously observe it according to the custom and sense of the primitive Liturgies; who always did believe the consecration not to be a natural effect, and change, finished in any one instant, but a divine alteration consequent to the whole ministery: that is, the solemn prayer and invocation.

Clerus Domini, in other words, confirms that Taylor's turn to the East was well established in his thought before publication of The Real Presence and Spiritual of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. On this matter of eucharistic consecration, we can see how Taylor's looking to the East provides for the Book of Common Prayer and for Anglicans a rich theology and liturgical interpretation, with deep patristic roots, in which reformed catholic sacramental concerns were understood and interpreted in a broader, deeper theological context.

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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