eeded for a while in abolishing in this country episcopal church
government; for among the "innovations in discipline," as they were called
by the Puritan committee of the House of Lords in 1641, we find the
following usages complained of: the turning of the holy table altarwise,
and most commonly calling it an altar; the bowing towards it or towards
the east many times; advancing candlesticks in many churches upon the
altar, so called; the making of canopies over the altar, so called, with
traverses and curtains on each side and before it; the compelling all
communicants to come up to the rails, and there to receive; the advancing
crucifixes and images upon the parafront or altar cloth, so called; the
reading some part of the morning prayer at the holy table, when there was
no communion celebrated; the minister's turning his back to the west, and
his face to the east, when he pronounced the Creed or read prayers; the
reading the Litany in the midst of the body of the church in many of the
parochial churches; the having a _credentia_ or side table, besides the
Lord's table, for divers uses in the Lord's Supper; and the taking down
galleries in churches, or restraining the building of galleries where the
parishes were very populous[244-*].

In August, 1643, an Ordinance of the Lords and Commons was published, for
the taking away and demolishing of all altars and tables of stone, and for
the removal of all communion tables from the east end of every church and
chancel; and it was prescribed that such should be placed in some other
fit and convenient place in the body of the church or in the body of the
chancel; and that all rails whatsoever which had been erected near to,
before, or about any altar or communion table, should be likewise taken
away; and that the chancel-ground which had been raised within twenty
years then last past, for any altar or communion table to stand on, should
be laid down and levelled, as the same had formerly been; and that all
tapers, candlesticks, and basins should be removed and taken away from the
communion table, and not again used about the same; and that all
crucifixes, crosses, and all images and pictures of any one or more
Persons of the Trinity, or of the Virgin Mary, and all other images and
pictures of saints, or superstitious inscriptions belonging to any
churches, should be taken away and defaced before the first day of
November, 1643: but it was provided that such ordinances should