[COMMUNION 7.] The table used in celebrating the Communion of the Lord’s Supper.
In the Church of England, the application of the terms ‘communion-table’ and ‘altar’ respectively to the ‘holy table’ of the Prayer-book, depends more or less on the views held as to the nature of the Communion Office. See historical data under ALTAR 2 b.
1566. in Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866), 43. A carpitt … for our communion table.
1626. Donne, Serm., iv. 32. Consider then that to come to the Communion table is to take Orders: Every man should come to that altar as holy as the Priest for there he is a Priest.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 82. It was not to be accounted an altar, but the communion-table.
1641, 1660, 1742. [see ALTAR 2 b].
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 112, ¶ 2. He has likewise … railed in the Communion-Table at his own Expence.
1733. Neal, Hist. Purit., II. 61. Bishop Jewel says, that in St. Basil’s days, Ann. 380, the Communion Table was of boards, and so placed that men might stand round it.
1854. Ecclesiologist, XV. 341. He … talks of the ‘communion-table’ as if this were a correct or authorized term.
1870. F. Wilson, Ch. Lindisf., 23. There is a space left … for a communion table.
