sacraments qua sacraments, and touched also the doctrine of the Church
or ecclesiology, and this was the question of the so-called private Mass.
The Recusants and Jewel’s ecclesiology
The private Mass was on the one hand a deflection, a red herring, an
issue much like the canopy or individuum vagum, by which Jewel hoped
to demonstrate that the Catholics lacked antiquity; but on the other
hand it hit a real nerve for the Catholics, for it brought into question a
great many other things, most importantly the question of how the
communion of the saints was realized by and within the sacrament. Put
simply, Jewel opposed the practice of priests communicating the
elements to themselves alone, even if other people were present for the
Mass, who though present did not receive. To Jewel, people should
always communicate, and no Eucharist should be done privately or
solely, for this then breached the very idea of communion. This becomes
more important when the visibility of the Church is tied to civil
obedience to the prince, making attendance and communication in the
Sunday communion service evidence of both loyalty and purity of faith.
These assertions betrayed the axioms of both parties. For Jewel, as noted
above, the act of participation by the people and minister created
communion; communion was a corporate action. For Catholics, the
Eucharist, union with Christ, produced the communion of the saints.
Communion with other Christians was thus effected by union with
Christ, and therefore communion is had with all Christians so united to
Christ, whether they were communicating in the elements or just
attending. Moreover,
as in our praying alone, we communicate with all Christendome, so
in receiving alone, we communicate with the whole body of Christ
.... the supper of our Lorde is therefore called a communion,
because all the lyvelye membres of the church are brought thereby
to an unitie with Christ their head.^73Rastell, here defending and amplifying Harding’s analogy of prayer with
the Eucharist, related both to the question of the unity of the Church.
Rastell had already noted that
as prayer is made for other, so in lyke manner is the bodye of Christ
offred by him for other. Offred (I saye) once uppon the crosse
immediatlye by hym selfe in a bloudy and visible maner, to the
redemption of mankynde: and yet daylye styll offred by hym,
through the ministery of his priestes, in mysticall and unbloudyTHE CATHOLIC REACTION TO JEWEL 149
(^73) John Rastell, A Replie, f. 113b.