Western, unanimously assigns the conclusion of the act of Communion, before the post-communion thanksgiving begins, as normally the proper point, in the service, for the consumption of whatever remains of the Sacrament and for the consequent ablutions." These statements do not appear, to be altogether accurate. Commenting on them, the late W. J. Birbeck (a most competent authority in such matters) declares that "so far as the Orthodox Eastern Church is concerned, neither of these statements will bear investigation. As a matter of fact what takes place in the Eastern liturgy is precisely the opposite." Then, after describing from his own personal knowledge and experience the Eastern custom of deferring the consumption of whatever remains of the Sacrament and the taking of the ablutions until after the deacon says "Let us go forth in peace" (which corresponds with the Western Ite, missa est), and in some instances until after the departure of the people, Mr. Birbeck adds, "From this it will be clear that nothing is further from the liturgical instincts of Orthodox Easterns, than any theory that there is a violation of liturgical propriety in deferring the ablutions until after the Blessing." The rubrics of the Divine Liturgy of St. Chrysostom agree with Mr. Birbeck's statements concerning Eastern practice.
The Rev. W. Lockton, in his scholarly work on the subject here considered (Cambridge, 1920), tells us that, "At Rome the custom of removing the sacrament from the altar after the communion seems to have been adopted first in the sixteenth century. * * * In the Caeremoniale Episcoporum of 1600 the new practice is allowed as an alternative to the earlier custom of its remaining on the altar until mass was finished. * * * In the revised Prayer Book of 1661 the new rubric quite plainly orders that "what remaineth of the consecrated elements," whether much or little, shall be placed upon the Lord's table and be reserved there until after the benediction; and as the rule is not conditional it would seem that definite provision is to be made so that some of the sacrament may always remain on the altar until after the blessing, the rubric being thus in general agreement with the rule of the First Roman Ordo that the altar should never be without the sacrifice while mass is being performed."
