ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Sunday between Easter and Trinity Sundays.'** In 17 14 there were weekly celebrations in sixteen churches, including St. Martin's in the Fields, St. George's Bloomsbury, and St. James's Duke Street. The services were usually held after mattins, but at fifteen churches in 17 14 the celebration was at 6, 7, or 8 o'clock, and at six of these there was a second celebration at midday.^" The custom did not entirely disappear in the deadness of the succeeding years, for at Whitefield's Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road the service began at 6 o'clock on sacrament Sundays.^" As Church life became more barren the celebrations decreased in number, and it is signifi- cant that in 1732 the guide-book of the parish clerks does not mention the service, though entering into particulars of church furniture and arrangements.'*^ In Queen Anne's reign the number of communicants was often large, even apart from the parochial religious societies ; a great proportion of the congregation at the Savoy were communicants,'*' and at St. Paul's Covent Garden the offertory at the Communion service one Easter Day was ^25.'*' The numbers must have been influenced by the conditions of the Test Act, though at Westminster, at least, a special service was sometimes held for those wishing to qualify for office."" Though the act of communion was recognized as an acknowledgement of church membership,'" many of the Nonconformists,'^* among whom was Richard Baxter, attended the service, a practice which induced the clergy of St. Margaret's Westminster to administer the elements to persons in their pews as late as 1683.'" The early members of the Evangelical School did not neglect the ordinances ; John Wesley held High Church views on the Eucharist, and Thomas Jones, curate of St. Saviour's Southwark, desired a weekly celebra- tion,'" which Romaine established at St. Anne's Blackfriars and handed down to his successor.'^' Unfortunately the desire never to pollute ' that sacred ordinance by giving it to prophane Persons ' '^^ led to infrequent celebrations, though the monthly Eucharist was usual in many London churches in 1835.'" At St. Bride's, under Canon Dale, a fortnightly administration was established about 1840 in order to lessen the crowds of communicants"* which here, as at St. John's Bedford Row, sometimes prolonged the service far on in the afternoon. The services, though few, were well attended ; '^^ there were nearly two hundred communicants at the small Lock Chapel on Easter Day 1828,'^" women bearing a high proportion to men.'" The High Churchmen of the early 19th century desired to restore the office of Holy Communion to a central position in the Sunday services,'^" but the majority of the clergy, including Blomfield and his fellow bishops, were content if
- " Archidiaconatus Lond. '" Paterson, op. cit.
"* Sunday Ramble, 6 ; Bull, Lifi of John Newton, 70, 71. "' Netu Remarks on Lond. 1732. "' Kidder, Life ofHorneck, 9. '" Patrick, Autobiog. 88 ; Calamy, Hist. Acct. i, 473. ^^» D. and C. Westm. parcel 54. '"' The Case of Moderation (B.M. Pressmark 4105, df, 2), 26. '" Patrick, op. cit. 86. '*' M. C. E. Walcott, Hist, of Par. Ch. of St. Margaret Westm. 78. '■' Thomas Jones, Works (ed. Romaine), 189. '" Goode, Mem. of Rev. William Goode, 106. "* John Stuart, Duty of a Minister, 55. '" Metropolitan Eccl. Guide. " Dale, Life of Thomas Pelham Dale, i, 55. "^^ Goode, loc. cit. '*° Grimshawe, Mem. of Rev. Legh Richmond, 103. '*' J. A. Park, An Earnest Exhortation to a frequent Reception of the Holy Sacrament, 21. "^ J. A. Park, Mem. of William Stevens, 53 ; Churton, Mem. of Joshua Watson, i, 238. I 361 46
