17 See “Our Paris Letter” in the _Church Times_ for June 12, 1874,
which might be fitly described as two closely printed columns of
exasperating mendacity.
18 We are told that “one striking feature of the evening as regards the
tone pervading the assemblage was the manifest repudiation of the
idea ... that, if the bill were pressed, the extreme men would
secede and free the church from their annoying presence.” When Mr.
Hillyard, of S. Lawrence’s, Norwich, who presented himself as one of
the “extremest of the extreme,” told how a parishioner of his had
said to him, “Sir, if fifteen years ago there had been such services
and spiritual privileges at S. Lawrence as there are now, I should
never have turned Roman Catholic,” he “fairly brought down the
house.” The idea of “sorrowful departure,” ... when referred to by
one of the speakers, was received with _shouts of derisive
laughter_. Another clergyman stated that he had “reconciled a great
number of Roman Catholics to the church” (!), which announcement was
received with “great cheering.”
19 And Mr. B., moreover, would be able for his part to appeal to the
“Black rubric” (so named by the Tractarians), and which is appended
to the Communion Service, and Art. XXVIII. The former, apologizing
for the order contained in the office for communicants to receive
_kneeling_, declares 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 Presence of Christ’s natural Flesh
and Blood. For the sacramental bread and wine remain still in their
very natural substance, and therefore may not be adored (for that
were idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians).” Article
XXVIII. declares that “Transubstantiation cannot be proved by Holy
Writ; but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture,
overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to
many superstitions.... The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was not by
Christ’s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or
worshipped.”