In the articles set forth by Cardinal Pole in 1557, to be inquired of in
his diocese of Canterbury, were the following: "Whether the churches be
sufficiently garnished and adorned with all ornaments and books
necessary; and whether they have a rood in their church of a decent
stature, with Mary and John, and an image of the patron of the same
church?" Also, "Whether the altars of the church be consecrated or no?"
But in 1559, the first year of the reign of Elizabeth, many of the
injunctions set forth in the reign of Edward the Sixth, as to the mode of
saying the Litany without procession, the removal and destruction of
shrines and monuments of superstition, the setting up of a pulpit, and of
the poor-box or chest, which latter was however "to be set and fastened in
a most convenient place," were re-established. By these injunctions it
appears that in many parts of the realm the altars of the churches had
been removed, and tables placed for the administration of the holy
sacrament; that in some other places the altars had not yet been removed:
in the order whereof, as the injunctions express, save for an uniformity,
there seemed to be no matter of great moment, so that the sacrament was
duly and reverently ministered; and it was so ordered that no altar should
be taken down but by oversight of the curate and churchwardens, or one of
them, and that the holy table in every church should be decently made and
set in the place where the altar stood, and there commonly covered, and so
to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be
distributed; at which time the same was to be so placed within the chancel
in such manner that the minister might be the more conveniently heard of
the communicants in his prayer and ministration.
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