Black Rubric, The

Name usually given to the “Declaration on Kneeling” that was printed at the end of the rite for Holy Communion in the 1552 BCP. The “Declaration” was understood to deny the real presence in the eucharistic elements. This statement was removed in the 1559 BCP, but replaced in the 1662 BCP in an altered version that denied only Christ's “corporal” presence in the eucharist. The term dates from nineteenth-century England. Prayer Book rubrics were printed in red, and the “Declaration” was therefore printed in black since it was not a rubric. The “Declaration” has never appeared in an American Prayer Book. See Receptionism.