presented.
The next rubric orders the bread and wine to be placed on the Holy
Table, thus implying the existence of some shelf or table, called
the Credence Table, on which they had been previously placed. This
rubric was omitted from 1552 to 1661, which perhaps accounts for
the custom existing in some churches of not placing the elements on
the altar till the time of consecration. The rubrics before the two
exhortations giving notice of Holy Communion, were inserted in
1661, but now they have fallen into disuse. The next rubric,
inserted in 1552, refers to the custom, almost obsolete now, of
intending communicants taking places in the chancel for the rest
of the service.

The rubric before the Confession is ambiguous in language, and may
mean that the Confession is to be said by the minister alone. The
next rubric, directing the Bishop, if present, to pronounce the
Absolution, is from the Scottish Office, and was introduced here
in 1661. For the rubric before the Consecration prayer, see
_Eastward Position_. The "fair linen cloth," ordered to be thrown
over what remains of the consecrated elements, is by some thought
to represent the linen clothes in which the Saviour's body was
wrapped when placed in the tomb.

Of the nine rubrics at the close of the service, the second, third,
and fourth are directed against the practice obtaining in the Roman
Catholic Church of solitary masses. The fifth is stated by
Archbishop Parker and Bishop Cosin not to forbid the use of
wafer-bread, but merely to legalize the use of ordinary bread. The
rubric in the Scottish Liturgy expresses this more clearly,--"Though
it be lawful to have wafer-bread, it shall suffice that the bread
be such as is usual." The sixth rubric exhibits the Church's
careful and reverent treatment of the remains of the consecrated
elements; but its main office was to forbid the reservation of the
Blessed Sacrament for the use of invalids and others. This was
allowed in the primitive Church, and is now by the Scottish
Episcopal Church; but the superstitions which grew up around the
custom seemed to make the present rule necessary. The next rubric
has been required since offerings in kind were discontinued.

In the next rubric the Lateran Council (1215) enjoined one communion
yearly, at Easter-tide only; but the present rule is more in
accordance with the custom of the ancient Church, and encourages
lay communions.

The last rubric only provides for the distri