Description

Rite for the reception of Holy Communion in the sixteenth century

The work edited is a printed volume The Order of Communion, printed by Richard Grafton in London on 8 March 1548, STC 16457 (formerly 16458). It should be noted that in fact the contents are a rite in English for the reception of Holy Communion by the faithful, intended to be inserted into the Latin Eucharistic liturgy after the celebrant's communion.
The work is supplied with four appendices: a collation with other printed editions; Latin and German versions of the English text; a reconstruction of the resulting hybrid liturgy as it would have been celebrated in England on Easter Sunday 1548 - a Latin Mass with English scripture readings and a concocted English rite of communion for the faithful, the Mass presumably concluding as usual from the ablutions onwards; a comparison between the Order and the liturgy of Herman of Wied, schismatic Archbishop of Cologne.
The Latin version of appendix II is by Alexander Aless (STC 16459), the German is apparently omitted from STC but copies are found in the British Library, London, at C.25.h.4 (8.) and C.25.g.4 under the title Die Ordnung der heiligen Communion bey des Herrn Nachtmal.