Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/259

Rh interesting documents have been supplied. I hope, by the same obliging permission, which has enabled me to bring them before the readers of the Journal, to draw from this source further illustrations of the manners and enterprise of the chivalrous times of Henry VI., especially as displayed in the feats of arms of Sir John de Astley.

an ancient period it appears to have been customary in the Christian Church to appropriate, for the solemn service of the Eucharist, a tablet or portable substitute for the fixed altar, to be used as convenience might require. Some liturgical writers have considered that the origin of this practice may be traced only to the eighth century, but it is highly probable, as Dom Martene has remarked, that it existed even in the early ages of the Church. As soon as the primitive simplicity of Christian faith had given place to the feeling by which matters of external observance became regarded as of essential importance, perhaps even before temples were devoted to Christian worship, although it had become customary to set apart certain suitable vessels for the most solemn of Christian rites, the notion arose probably that the consecration of the elements upon tables of ordinary and profane use might be inconsistent with the reverence due to so sacred a service. Hence, doubtless, even in the early times of dispersion and persecution, and whenever access to a consecrated church was impracticable, the custom originated to which must be traced the use of the super-altare in the Latin, as also of the ἀντιμίνσιον, in the eastern Church.

There can be no question that this attention to due solemnity in the celebration of this holy Sacrament was also observed, so far as circumstances permitted, by the zealous advocates of the faith through whose mission into heathen lands, the knowledge