THE REAL QUESTION AS TO ALTAR LIGHTS. CHRIST’S BODY PRESENT BY CONSECRATION, AND OFFERED IN THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR. A LETTER TO THE REV. JOHN W. H. MOLYNEUX, BY EDWARD J. PHIPPS, RECTOR OF STANSFIELD. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, READER AND DYER. SUDBURY: HENRY S. PRATT. 1865. _Stansfield Rectory, Oct. 13th, 1865._ MY DEAR MR. MOLYNEUX, I have read with much interest your correspondence with the Bishop of Ely on the subject of Altar Lights, and as the course which the Bishop has taken, makes it of serious importance to every clergyman, especially to those in the diocese of Ely, I have been giving it my best consideration. I believe the facts were as follows:--The Bishop had given notice to hold a confirmation in S. Peter’s Church, Sudbury, on the 1st May last, being the festival of S. Philip and S. James. According to your custom you prepared for the celebration of the Holy Communion, and as the Bishop was staying at your house, informed him of it, of course anticipating his attendance. His Lordship, however, intimated that he understood you had Lights on the Altar at the Communion, that he objected to them, and in consequence, after discussing the matter with you, ended by absenting himself altogether from the service. Some time after, his Lordship sends you Dr. Twiss’s opinion as given in your correspondence--pronounces Altar Lights illegal, and informs you that though he acquits you of wilful disobedience on account of your ignorance of the Law, yet that no other course was open to him but that which he had adopted, viz., to abstain from Communion with you, and therefore in future, with any other clergyman who may presume to introduce or retain them. I am moreover informed that in accordance with this arrangement, his Lordship has intimated his intention to transfer the place of holding his visitation at Sudbury, from S. Peter’s to All Saints, that is to say from a Church where to say nothing more, Morning and Evening Prayer are said daily throughout the year, to a Church where this most positive and essential Law of the Church, is wholly and habitually set at nought. I certainly had not considered that the question of Altar Lights was of such vital importance. The Bishop has not even personal knowledge of their being used, and yet without even complaint made, without legal investigation or trial, you are at once subjected to the heaviest punishment it is in the power of the Church to inflict--you are cut off from Communion with your Bishop, _ipso facto_ excommunicate. This result makes it, I repeat, highly important that it should be thoroughly ascertained, whether and upon what grounds Altar Lights are illegal. I believe the ordinary authority quoted for the use of Altar Lights, is that they were “in use” in the second year of Edward VI., and that the Rubric of our present Common Prayer, directs all such ornaments to be retained, as were “in use” in that year by authority of Parliament.