Note 566 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
The rubric explaining kneeling at the communion had not the authority of Parliament, but only of the Privy Council, and was not included.
The rubric of 1552 regarding ornaments, which had the authority of Parliament and was re-enacted by the Act of Uniformity of 1559, was: “And here is to be noted that the minister at the time of communion, and at all other times in his ministration, shall use neither alb, vestment, nor cope; but being archbishop or bishop, he shall have and wear a rochet: and being priest or deacon, he shall have and wear a surplice only.”
This is the real ornaments rubric of the Elizabethan settlement, and appears to be such in the use and wont of the Church of England from 1559 to 1566, save that copes were used occasionally.
The proviso in the Act of Uniformity (1559) was: “Such ornaments of the Church and of the ministers thereof shall be retained and be in use as was in this Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI., until other order shall be therein taken by the authority of the Queen’s Majesty, with the advice of her commissioners appointed and authorised under the Great Seal of England for causes ecclesiastical, or of the metropolitan of this realm.”
The ornaments in use in the second year of Edward VI. are stated in the rubrics of the first Prayer-Book of King Edward (1549):
“Upon the day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of the Holy Communion, the Priest that shall execute the holy ministry shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration, that is to say: a white Albe plain, with a vestment or Cope. And where there be many Priests or Deacons, there so many shall be ready to help the Priest in the ministration as shall be requisite: and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to say, Albes with tunicles.” At the end there is another rubric: “Upon Wednesdays and Fridays, the English Litany shall be said or sung in all places after such form as is appointed by the King’s Majesty’s Injunctions; or as is or shall be otherwise appointed by His Highness. And though there be none to communicate with the Priest, yet these days (after the Litany ended) the Priest shall put upon him a plain Albe or surplice, with a cope, and say all things at the Altar appointed to be said at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, until after the offertory.”