were
undoubtedly issued with the intention of promoting that uniformity
in all parts of Public Worship which had been enjoined by statute,
and under the large notions of the royal supremacy which then
prevailed. They may fairly be considered as affording evidence of
the contemporary practice, and of the intention of the authors of
the Prayer Book in matters of rites and ceremonies. Persons who
yield the amount of authority to these Injunctions (which never
became law) which is readily given to others (which were law),
consider that candles upon the Communion Table are ornaments which
were forbidden in the second year of Edward VI., and therefore are
not authorized by our present Rubric. On the other hand, we may
conclude from the terms of Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity, and from
the Rubric of her Prayer Book, that it was her intention to
distinguish between the customs of 1549, represented by Edward's
Injunctions of that year, and those which, not being mentioned and
forbidden in the statute, might be considered as authorized by the
Parliament of 1549. And she certainly gave this practical
interpretation to her own law, since in the royal chapel "the cross
stood on the altar, and two candlesticks, and two tapers burning."
Hook, in his Church Dictionary, says,--"From the time of Edward
there never seems to have been a time when the lights were not
retained in Cathedral churches, and wherever we might look for an
authoritative interpretation of the Law. And to the present day the
candles are to be seen on the Altars of almost all Cathedrals. In
Collegiate churches, also, they are usually found; and so also in
the Chapels Royal, and in the Chapels of several Colleges in Oxford
and Cambridge."

ALTAR LINEN. The rubric at the beginning of the Communion Service
provides that "The Table, at the Communion-time," is to have a "fair
white linen cloth upon it." And a further rubric declares that "What
remaineth of the consecrated Elements" is to be covered with "a
fair linen cloth." This latter cloth is called a _corporal_, although
some understand a cloth laid on the altar by that name. Other things
used in some churches at the time of the celebration are--(1) a
_chalice-veil_, which is a square of silk embroidered and fringed,
varying in colour, according to the season, or of transparent
material edged with lace. It is used for covering the chalice.
(2) The _pall_, a small square of card-board, with linen on either
side, is so