in one instance, to private confession and absolution. The Church
of England has always retained in her Visitation Office a permission
to the priest to pronounce absolution privately to the sick man.
This was a feature of the First Book that was not disturbed in the
Second. But wherever else they found anything that seemed to look
toward the continuance of the system familiarly known to us under
the name of "the Confessional," they expunged it. Between the
Exhortation and the Confession there is, in point of literary merit,
a noticeable contrast, and it is scarcely to be believed that both
formularies can have proceeded from one and the same pen. Another
step in the Protestant direction was the prohibition of certain
vestments that in the First Book had been allowed, as the alb and
cope. The Introit Psalms were taken away. The word "table" was
everywhere substituted for the word "altar." The changes in the
Office of the Holy Communion were numerous and significant. The
Ten Commandments, for instance, were inserted in the place where
we now have them. The _Gloria in Excelsis_ was transferred from
the beginning of the service to the end. The Exhortations were
re-written. The supplication for the dead was taken out of the
Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church, and the words
"militant here on earth" were added to the title with a view to
confining the scope of the intercession to the circle of people
still alive. The Confession, Absolution, Comfortable Words, and
Prayer of Humble Access were placed before the Consecration instead
of after it. Most important of all was the change of the words
appointed to be said in delivering the elements to the communicants.
In the First Book these had been, "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ
which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting
life," and in the case of the cup, "The blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto
everlasting life." For these were now substituted in the one
instance the words, "Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ
died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith, with
thanksgiving," and in the other, "Drink this in remembrance that
Christ's blood was shed for thee, and be thankful."

From the Office for the Communion of the Sick the direction to
reserve the elements was omitted, as was also the permission to
anoint the sick man with oil. The Service of Baptism was no longer
suf