Members only: Eucharis­tic Sac­ri­fice in the Prayer Book

In the City of God (10.6), Augustine defines sacrifice as ‘every work which is done that we may be united to God in holy fellowship, and which has a reference to that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed’. Sacrifice is the action that brings man into communion and fellowship with God. It is in the return of the creature to the Creator, to rest in his infinite goodness, that it attains its end. The New Testament uses the Old Testament language of sacrifice to speak about the death of Christ and the life of Christians, and very early in the church’s history, and perhaps in the New Testament itself, that language is also used for the eucharist. Augustine draws together these three aspects of sacrificial language in the City of God (10.6): the sacrifice of Christ for his body the church, the sacrifice of the church through Christ its head, and the eucharist as the sign by which the church learns to offer itself to God through Christ. Are these sacrifices the same or different, and if so, how? Though opinions varied, only in the 16th century was there an attempt at definitive clarification, and in which the classical Anglican teaching of eucharistic sacrifice emerges.

In ancient times, the norm was but one altar in a church; however, in the West in the Middle Ages, altars proliferated to facilitate the multiplication of masses often celebrated in the absence of any communicants apart from the priest. This multiplication of masses was altogether necessary to the economy, both earthly and heavenly, of the late medieval church: an important source of revenue, and an important means of salvation. The mass was regarded as an efficacious means of intercession for any number of intentions – but especially for the benefit of the faithful departed, the remission of their sins, and their deliverance from the pains of purgatory.