TABLE
153
TABLE
ther, De Duabus Tahulis Lapideis (Regiom. 1679); Mi- chaelis, De Tub. Fad. ffioiibus (Vitemb. 1719).
TABLE, the name given to the supreme ecclesiasti- cal court of the Waldeusian Cliurch (q. v.).
TABLE, Cueup:nce, a small side -table, commonly placed on the south side of the altar, for tlie altar breads, cruets of wine and water, offertory dish, service-books, lavabo dish, and otlier things necessary for the solemn or low celebration of the holy cucharist. See Cke-
DENCE-TABLE.
TABLE, Holy. 1. The Lord's table or altar. 2. A frontal to an altar; e. g. one given to Glastonbury in 1071, tnade of gold, silver, and ivory, and one at St. Alban's in the Tith century. 3. The mensa, the upper stone altar-slab. 4. Pensilis, containing the names of benefactors, registers of miracles, a list of indulgences, and the course of officiants, officiating clergy at the hours, and celebrants of masses.
TABLE OF Commandments, a representation of the two tables of stone on which the Commandments were graven, ordered by a post-Reformation canon to be placed on the east wall of the church or chancel.
TABLE OF Degrees, a formal list of relationships, both by blood and affinity, within which degrees the Church of England authoritatively prohibits marriage. This table, usually printed at the end of the Anglican Prayer-book, is ordered to be hung up in a prominent place in the nave of every church or chapel, by the au- thority of various visitation articles, especially those of
archbishop Parker in 1503 Lee, Olosg. of Liturgical
Terms, s. v. See Affinity.
TABLE OF (movable) Feasts, a list of movable festivals prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer for the guidance and instruction of both clergy and laity.
TABLE OF Lessons. A tabular arrangement of Scripture lections for matins and evensong, daily ar- ranged throughout the year. Tliis tal)le was first tlrawn up in 15-i9, altered in the revision of 1661, and again amended by Convocation in 1870.
TABLE of the LoKn, a phrase taken from Scripture, used to designate the holy table, or altar, of the Chris- tian Church (1 Cor. x, 21). In the Old Test, the words table and altar appear to have been applied indifferently to the same thing (Ezek. xli, 22). Among other terms which have been used to designate the Lord's table, it is obvious to mention the word " altar" as having been so employed : it is a term, however, which, though it may easily be borrowed in a figurative sense from the ancient Scriptures, is neither found in the New Test, in the sense now referred to, nor has it the sanction of the Church. In the first Prayer-book of king Edward VI, published in 15-1:9, which may be considered as a con- necting link between the Missal and our present Prayer- book, the word "altar" occurs in the Communion Ser- vice at least three times: but in the service of 1552 (the second Prayer-book of Edward VI) it is in every in- stance struck out; and if another expression is used in place of it, that expression is The Lord's Table. This circumstance is the more worthy of remark, because wherever in the older of these books the phrase " God's Board" was adopted as descriptive of" the Lord's Table" it was allowed to remain. See Altar.
TABLE of Prothesis. See Credence-table.
TABLE OF Secrets, a piece of paper placed at the foot of the cross on the altar, and containing the part of the service the priest is to say while turned to the altar, so that he need not turn to look on his book. This is placed upon pasteboard or thin wood, and richly framed. — Migne, Encyclop. Theolof/ique, s. v.
TABLE OF SnEw-BREAD (t3^3En 'nhz\ fable of the faces, Numb, iv, 7; r,5T"53il in^l;.", falile of the ar- rangement, 1 Chron, xxviii, 16 ; ^hljri "nbt'n, the pure table, Lev. xxiv, 6; 2 Chron. xiii, 11 ; Sept. r) TpaTrtZ,a
Tt'iQ TrpoSefffwt,), one of the pieces of furniture in the IMosaic tabernacle (Exod. xxv, 23 sq. ; xxxvii, 10 sq.), in Solomon's Temple (1 Kings vii, 48; comp. 2 Chron. xxix, 18), in its restoration by Zerubbabel (1 Mace, i, 22), and in Herod's reconstruction of that edifice (Jose- phus. War, vii, 5, 5). It stood in the outer apartment or holy place, on the right hand or north side, and was made of acacia (shittim) wood, two cubits long, one broad, and one and a half high, and covered with jami- nx of gold. According to the Mishna {Mcnuch. xi, 5), it was ten handbreadths long and five wide ; other tra- ditions make it twelve handbreadths long and six wide. The top of the leaf of this table was encircled by a bor- der or rim (TT, a crown or ■wreath') of gold. Tlie frame of the table, immediately below the leaf, was encircled with a piece of wood of about four inches in l)readth, around the edge of which was a rim or border (HTiO'D, a margin) similar to that around the leaf. A little low- er down, but at equal distances from the top of the ta- ble, there w-ere four rings of gold fastened to the legs, through which staves covered with gold were inserted for the purpose of carrying it (Exod. xxv, 23-28; xxxvii, 10-16). The description of Joscphus, which is quite mi- nute, varies in several particulars (.4 nt. iii, 6, 0). These rings were not found in the table which was afterwards made for the Temple, nor indeed in any of the sacred furniture, where they had previously been, except in the ark of the covenant. Twelve unleavened loaves were placed upon this table, which were sprinkled with frank- incense (the Sept. adds salt; Lev. xxiv, 7). The num- ber twelve represented the twelve tribes, and was not diminished after the defection of ten of the tribes from the worship of God in his sanctuary, because the cove- nant with the sons of Abraham was not formally abro- gated, and because there were still many true Israelites among the apostatizing tribes. The twelve loaves were also a constant record against them, and served as a standing testimonial that their proper place was before the forsaken altar of Jehovah (see Philo, Oj^p. ii, 151; Clem. Alex. Strom, vi, 279).