ALTAR; LORD'S TABLE; HOLY TABLE; COMMUNION TABLE. Disputes have frequently arisen as to whether the Holy Table was to be called the _Communion Table_ or the _Altar_. Bingham writes--"The ancient writers used both names indifferently; some calling it Altar, others the Lord's Table, the Holy Table, the Mystical Table, the Tremendous Table, &c., and sometimes both Table and Altar in the same sentence. Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origan, and Tertullian all call it Altar. It is certain that they did not mean by Altar what the Jews and heathen meant: either an altar dressed up with images, or an altar for bloody sacrifices. In the first sense they rejected altars, both name and thing. But for their own mystical, unbloody sacrifice, as they called the Eucharist, they always owned they had an altar." In our Prayer Book it is styled the _Table_, the _Holy Table_, and the _Lord's Table_. The phrase _Communion Table_ occurs in the Canons only. The word _Altar_ is used in the Coronation Service. Bishop Sparrow, one of the reviewers of the Prayer Book in 1662, writes thus:--"That no man take offence at the word _Altar_, let him know, that anciently both these names, _Altar_, or _Holy Table_ were used for the same thing; though most frequently the Fathers and Councils use the name _Altar_. And both are fit names for that holy thing. Por the Holy Eucharist being considered as a sacrifice, in the representation of the breaking of the bread, and the pouring forth of the cup, doing that to the holy symbols which was done to Christ's body and blood, and so showing forth and commemorating the Lord's death, and offering upon it the same sacrifice that was offered upon the cross, or rather the commemoration of that sacrifice, it may fitly be called an _Altar_; which again is as fitly called an _Holy Table_, the Eucharist being considered as a Sacrament, which is nothing else but a distribution and application of the sacrifice to the several receivers." ALTAR CLOTH. The 82nd Canon provides that the Altar be covered with a carpet of silk, or some other decent stuff; also with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration. It is usual in many churches to vest the Altar in different colours to mark the various seasons of the Church. Thus at Christmas, Easter, and festivals, other than the feasts of Martyrs, _White_ is used. For Whit Sunday and feasts of Martyrs, _Red_ is used. For Trinity Sunday _White_ is used, but for the Sundays after Trinity, _Green_. _Violet_ is the colour for Advent, Lent, Rogation Days, and Vigils.