By the late F. A. Car ring ton, Esq. 



255 



adequately described in a note. It contains fine stone mouuments 

 of the Goddards and the Waldrons, with figures in the costume of 

 the reign of James I., all painted ; a large incised altar-tomb of 

 the date of 1501, to " Magister Johannes Stone/' a chantry priest; 

 and a small brass, the demi-figure of another chantry priest, Henry 

 Frekylton, with chalice and book in the corners above him, which 

 will be given in Mr. Kite's work on the brasses of Wilts. 



In the oldest parish register there is written in a cotemporaneous 

 hand the following order : 



" A copy of the Order sent from the Right Reverend father in God the Bishop 

 of Saram to the Parish of Alborne for the placing of the Holy Table and 

 administration of the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 



"John [Davenant, consecrated 1621, ob. 1641] by divine Prouidence Bishop 

 of Sarum To the Curate and Churchwardens with the Parishioners of Awborne 

 in the County of Wilts and our Diocese of Sara, greeting. 



" Whereas his Ma tie hath beene lately informed that some men factiously dis- 

 posed have taken upon themselves to place and remove the Communion Table in 

 the Church of Awborne and thereupon his highnes has required me to take p r sent 

 order therein These are to let you know that both according to the Iniuncsions 

 given out in the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth for placing the Communion Table 

 in Churches, and by the 82 Canon agreed vpon in the first yeare of the Raigne 

 of King James of Blessed Memory, it was intimated that those Tables should 

 ordinarily be sett and stand with the side to the East wall of the Chauncell I 

 therefore require you the Churchwardens and all other persons not to meddle 

 with the bringing down or transposing of the Communion Table, as you will 

 answere at yo r owne perill and because some doe ignorantly suppose that the 

 standing of the Communion Table where Altars stood in times of Sup.stition has 

 some relish of Poperoy and some p.chance may erroniously conceive that the 

 placing thereof otherwise when the Holy Communion is administered savo rs of 

 Irreuerence. I would have you take notice from the forenamed Iniunction and 

 Canon from the Rubricke pr e fixed before the administracon of the Lords Supper 

 and from the first Article not long since enquired of in the Yisitacon of our most 

 Revered Metropolitan [Archbishop Laud] that the placing of it higher or lower 

 in the Chauncell or in the church is by the iudgment of the church of England 

 a thing indifferent and to be ordered and guided by the only rule of Convenientie . 

 Now because of' things of this nature to iudge and determine what is most con- 

 venient belongs not to private persons but to those who have Ecclesiasticall 

 authority— I inhibit you the Churchwardens and all other persons whatsoever to 

 meddle with the bringing downe of the Comunion Table or with altering the 

 place thereof at such times as the Holy Supper is to be administered And I 

 require you herein to yeeld obedience unto what is already iudged most con- 

 venient by my Chancellor vnless upon further consideration and viewe it shall be 

 otherwise ordered. 



" Now to the end that the Minister may neither be overtoyled nor the people 



