Worship without words? The strange sacramental thought of the ever-memorable John Hales of Eton

Abstract

In his undated Tract on the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the “ever-memorable” John Hales [1584–1656], fellow of Eton, proposed the curious and idiosyncratic view that the sacrament of Holy Communion might be celebrated without the words of consecration. Since the patristic period, sacramental validity has required both “matter” and “form” (form being the words used in the ritual). Was Hales’ suggestion merely an intellectual exercise or was he truly promoting such a heterodox theological view of a sacrament with “matter” but no “form”? An examination of the tract will demonstrate how Hales builds upon the theological method of Richard Hooker and yet goes beyond him in new ways, setting the stage for later English Latitudinarian thought.