Black Rubric

The term Black Rubric is the popular name for the declaration found at the end of the "Order for the Administration of the Lord's Supper" in the Prayer Book of the Church of England (BCP) which explains why the communicants should kneel and excludes possible misunderstandings of this action. The term dates from the 19th century when the medieval custom of printing the rubrics in red was followed in editions of the BCP and the declaration was printed in black;[1] but the Declaration itself was composed in 1552.

History of the declaration

In September 1552, after Parliament had approved the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI, John Knox and others argued before the Privy Council that the Holy Communion should be received sitting; but were refuted by Archbishop Cranmer.[2] As a result of this clash, the Council acted on its own authority and ordered the inclusion of the Declaration in the new prayerbook. The first copies had already been printed so it had to be pasted into them as a correction slip. It explained that kneeling was an expression of "humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ, given unto the worthy receiver" and did not imply any adoration of the bread and wine or of the real and essential presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood.[3] Historians have asked about whose victory the Black Rubric represents. Whilst Diarmid MacCulloch has argued that it was a victory for Cranmer, Isabel Davis, who has made a study based on multiple examples, has made the case that it was a victory for no one and that its interpollation physically disrupted Cranmer's prayerbook and the project of uniformity.[4]
The "rubric" was omitted from the Elizabethan prayer-book of 1559, probably as part of the Queen's policy to retain the support of moderate traditionalists, but possibly on the technical grounds that the reversal of her Catholic predecessor's repeal of Edward VI's Protestant legislation revived the 1552 BCP as approved by Parliament and not as published.[5][6] This omission was one of the cherished grievances of the Puritans and in the Savoy Conference of 1661 the Presbyterians demanded its restoration; but the twelve bishops who took part were not willing to grant it.[7] However, the revision of the prayer-book in 1661/2 involved all the bishops, representatives of the clergy and both Houses of Parliament. At a late stage in the proceedings, the "rubric" was rewritten and condensed with its language updated and a possibly significant verbal modification, the words "real and essential" in 1552 being changed to "Corporal". In this new form, it became part of the book as finally approved.[8] and therefore forms part of the doctrinal standards of the Church of England (Canon A5), but it has never been included in the alternative forms of worship (such as Common Worship) authorised or allowed by Canons B1, B2 and B4.[9]

It is debatable whether the verbal change "corporal" in place of "real and essential" implied some type of recognition of the "real presence" or simply updated the terminology because the original phrase was now out of date. Frere says it does[8] but Griffith Thomas says the opposite.[10]

Text in 1662

"Whereas it is ordained in this Office for the Administration of the Lord's Supper, that the Communicants should receive the same kneeling; (which order is well meant, for a signification of our humble and grateful acknowledgment of the benefits of Christ therein given to all worthy Receivers, and for the avoiding of such profanation and disorder in the holy Communion, as might otherwise ensue;) yet, lest the same kneeling should by any persons, either out of ignorance and infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy, be misconstrued and depraved: It is hereby declared, That thereby no adoration is intended, or ought to be done, either unto the Sacramental Bread or Wine there bodily received, or unto any Corporal[n 1] Presence of Christ's natural Flesh and Blood. For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very natural substances, and therefore may not be adored; (for that were Idolatry, to be abhorred of all faithful Christians;) and the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here; it being against the truth of Christ's natural Body to be at one time in more places than one."[11]

Notes

  1. ↑ In 1552 the text read "real and essential presence" in place of "Corporal Presence" – For complete text in 1552, see http://www.justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1552/Communion_1552.htm at bottom of the page.

References

  1. ↑ Cross, F.L. & Livingstone E.A., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church(2nd Ed, 1974) "Black Rubric, The" & "Rubric"
  2. ↑ Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation (2nd Ed) p.278
  3. ↑ The First and Second Prayer Books of King Edward VI with Introduction by Bp. Gibson (Everyman's Library N° 448 - 1964) p.392 with English spelling modernised
  4. ↑ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 528. See also, Iain R. Torrance, ‘A Particular Reformed Piety: John Knox and the Posture at Communion’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 67 (2014), pp. 400–13 (p. 402). Isabel Davis, 'Prosthesis and Reformation: The Black Rubric and the Reinvention of Kneeling', Textual Practice 30 (2016), pp. 1209-31.
  5. ↑ Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation.(2nd Ed) p.359
  6. ↑ Dix, Gregory The Shape of the Liturgy p.674 n1.
  7. ↑ Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer p.180
  8. 1 2 Procter and Frere, A New History of the Book of Common Prayer p. 503.
  9. ↑ "Canons of the Church of England". Churchofengland.org. Retrieved 2011-11-04.
  10. ↑ Griffith Thomas, W.H., The Principles of Theology Appendix on Article XXVIII
  11. ↑ "The Communion". Eskimo.com. Retrieved 2011-11-04.

Bibliography

Brian Douglas, A Companion to Anglican Eucharistic Theology, Volume 1, Leiden: Brill, 2012

External links

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