44 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. IL King Ridley being now biflsop of London, refolved upon a vifitation of his dio- Edward VI. 1550, cefe. His injunctions were as ufual, to enquire into the doctrines and manners of the clergy ; but the council fent him a letter in his majefly's Attars rCoom- an name, to fee that all altars were taken down, and to require the church gedinto munion Ta- wardens of every parifh to provide a table decently covered, and to place it Wes. in fuch part of the choir or chancel as should be mod meet, fo that the Burnet's minifters and communicants fhould be feparated from the red of the peo- Vooi.kefor. le. The fame in úntlions were given to the red of the bit o as appears. l. H. P > g Pst PP p. 15o $a by the colleC ion of bifhop Sparrow. Ridley began with his own cathedral. '59 of St. Paul, where he ordered the wall on the back-fide of the altar to . be broken down, and a decent table to be placed in its room ; and the like was done in mod churches throughout the province of Canterbury. The Reáfansfor reafons for this alteration were thefe : it, r. " Becaufe our Saviour inftituted the facrament at a table, and not at An- " an altar. Strype's halt 2. ' Becaufe Chrift is not to be facrificed over again,. but his body and` Vol. I. " blood to be fpiritually eaten and drank at the holy £upper; for which-a. p. 16o. " table is more proper than an altar. , 3. " Becaufe the Holy Glioft (peaking of the Lord's topper, calls it the " Lord's table, t Cor. X. 2I. but no where an altar. 4. " The canons of the council of Nice, as well as the fathers St. Chry " foflom and St. 4ugufline, call it the Lord's table ; and though they fome " times call it an altar, it is to be underftood figuratively. 5. " An altar has relation to a facrifice; fo that if we retain the one, we " muff admit the other; which would give great countenance to mad- " priefts, Flß. Refsr: 6. " There are many paffages in ancient writers, that (hew that com-. Vol. It. " munion tables were of wood, that they were made like tables; and that P' Q5ß' " thofe who fled into churches for fanduar did hide themfelves under tris. ` ype's An- a y them. Vol. L 7. " The mod learned foreign divines have declared'againft altars; as- p. 162. ee Bucer, Oecolampadius, Zuinglius, Bullinger, Calvin, P. Martyr, °foan- e° nes la/co, Hedio, Capito, &c. and have removed them out of their fe- " veral churches ; only the Lutheran churches retain them." IGid. Ridley, Cranmer, Latimer, and the red of the Englijh reformers, were Vol. III° unanimoufly of opinion, that the retaining altars would ferve only to nou- p' 187' rifh in peoples minds the fuperftitious opinion of a propitiatory mat's, and would minifter an occafion of offence and divifion among the godly; and the next age will Phew they were not midtaken in their conjectures. But fome of the bishops refuted to comply with the council's order; as Day bihhop of Chichefler, and Heath of Worceßer, infifling on the apoftie's . words to the Hebrews, We have ám altar; and rather than comply, they full-erect
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