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"Hist.
SECOND PRAYER-BOOK OF EDWARD VI. 319
the form of administration. The words heretofore
used, "The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c.,
were omitted, and their place supplied by "Take and
eat this in remembrance," &c. As Hardwick observes,
" the old formula was quite compatible with a
belief in transubstantiation ; the new formula, on
the contrary, was made consistent even with the lax
hypothesis of Zwingli."i But it is quite clear that
those who undertook the task of revision had no idea
whatsoever of transforming it into a service which
was incapable of being accepted by those who held
higher views with regard to Christ's presence in the
Eucharist. The preamble of the statute, which
authorises the book of 1552, speaks of the first book
in no ambiguous terms as "a very godly order, agreeable
to the Word of God and the Primitive Church."
As Collier says, " there is no stroke of censure, no
charge of superstition, no blemish, either with regard
to doctrine or ceremonial thrown upon it."^ The
truth is, no doubt, that this revision was a compromise.
It was intended, if it might be, to satisfy
the scrupulous consciences of those who had adopted,
in a greater or lesser degree, the religious opinions
which were held by the foreign reformers, without
absolutely provoking the active hostility of those
whose views were more in accordance with primitive
antiquity and Catholic teaching.
The more prominent changes in the new servicebook
were the leaving out of the name of "The
Mass " from the title of the Communion office, the
Rcf.," p. 211. -
"Eccl. Hist.," ii. p. 320.