CHAPTER II
the altar and its furniture
All altars should be 3 ft. 3 in. high, and at least deep enough to take a corporal 20 in. square, with an inch or two to spare. Their length will depend upon the dimensions and character of the church; and, as the whole dignity of effect depends very much upon the length of the altar, the advice of a competent architect should be sought. It should be borne in mind that altars are nearly always too short nowadays:[1] the vast majority of churches suffer greatly in this respect. As for the material of which the holy Table should be made, it may suffice to state that wooden altars were sometimes used before the Reformation, while many stone ones were set up in the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries in this country. Plain stone altars are by far the best.
The minimum amount of furniture allowed by the Canons of 1603 for the Lord's Table is (1) A frontal, ‘a carpet of silk or other decent stuff,’ and (2) ‘A fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration.’[2] We are not, therefore, allowed to dispense with frontals. We may be grateful that the naked altar is not allowed by our Church, because this Puritan, French fashion helps to destroy that teaching power of the Church’s seasons which needs so much to be
