I should have been glad also to have given, although not so immediately connected with my subject, yet illustrative of it, some account of the various restrictions and rules laid down in the English councils, relating to the daily habits and pursuits and occupations of the clergy what they might both properly and lawfully engage in, and what they might not: also, some of the many canons which were passed regulating the dress which they should wear. These, however, I must

pass by: but in the note below are references to some places in Wilkins, where the matter is entered into : 20 and if the reader examines them, he will certainly acknowledge, that on the present occasion, I could not have done justice to a subject so extensive, and of importance sufficient to justify a detailed consideration in a separate treatise.

I shall, therefore, now proceed to some particulars, relating to bishops. As to their consecration, it was always insisted on, in the church of England, that there should not be less than three bishops present, and assisting. And this from the time, when archbishop Egbert, in his excerpts, quoted the Nicene canon; or up to that earlier age, when British bishops, present at the council of Arles, agreed to this rule. Ut sine tribus episcopis nullus episcopus ordi

66

20 Concilia. tom. 1. p. 574. 609, 652. 670, 706. 716. 732. Tom. 2. p. 4. 59, 141, 146, 296, Tom. 3. 29. 61. 70. 586, 619, p. Tom. 4. p. 164. See Lyndwood also, lib. 3. tit. 1. Ut clericalis. John de Athon. Cap. Quoniam de habitu. The Pupilla oculi.

Lib. vij. cap. 10. It would be an endless task to attempt to refer to the foreign canonists, Van Espen, Bonacina, Thomassin, Saussajus, &c: all of whom treat very largely of the subject.

21 Wilkins. Conc. Tom. I. p.

107.

netur. De his qui usurpant sibi, quod soli debeant episcopos ordinare, placuit ut nullus hoc sibi præsumat, nisi assumptis secum aliis septem episcopis: si tamen non potuerit septem, infra tres non audeat ordinare."

I extract the following form of citation of a bishop to consecrate and to assist, in the year 1293. “Venerabili in Christo patri, domino. R. Dei gratia London. episcopo, devoti sui H. permissione divina prior ecclesiæ Christi Cant. et ejusdem loci capitulum, salutem, et ad sinceræ devotionis obsequia se paratos. Quanto majorem devotionem erga nos et ecclesiam nostram Cantuar. geritis, quam frequenti experimento didicimus, tanto vobis honorem facere satagimus præ cæteris ampliorem. Quia igitur discretus vir magister W. de Marchia Bathon. electus, die dominica in festo Pentecostes prox. ventur. in ecclesia nostra Cantuar. prout scitis, Deo propitio, est in episcopum consecrandus, paternitati vestræ supplicamus, quatenus dictis die et loco, omni excusatione remota, tantæ solennitate personaliter interesse velitis, munus consecrationis electo propriis manibus impensur. Quid autem super his facere decreverit sanctitas vestra, per bajulum præsentium nobis literatorie significetis. Dat. etc.""

474.

Mansi. Conc. Tom. 2. p.

The clause in the Act 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 20, which required four bishops, was in case the certificate of the election had not been sent to an archbishop; otherwise, two bishops, with the archbishop, were to consecrate. See Gibson, Codex Juris Ecc. p. 111.

23 Richard de Gravesend. consecr. 1280. Ob. 1303. Le Neve.

24 Wilkins. Conc. Tom. 2. p. 195. Other documents of much interest are printed in that place, relating to the same consecration. The see of Canterbury was at that time vacant: but it was not upon that account only that the letter of summons runs in the name of the prior and con

As to the times that is the periods of the year, at which general ornations were to take place, both Baronius and Bellarmine have attempted to prove that the Jejunia quatuor temporum" as fixed for that purpose, are to be attributed to the days and the authority of the apostles. But there is no evidence whatever, of any weight in favour of this opinion, whilst on the other hand, there is much in contracretion to Not only is there no mention of this fact in the earer fathers, but there is very ancient authority that Gelasius was the first who limited the wesents of general ordination to certain times of the year. Murviegus says: “ Gelasius papa constituit. us ordinationes presbyterorum, et diaconorum nonnisi certis temporibus dan So also Rabanus Maurus; Sacras ordinationes quatuor temporum diebus opor

28

tere fieri, decreta Gelasii papæ testantur." There is no doubt, however, that the appropriation of certain times of the year, to the solemnities of general ordinations, is of an antiquity reaching, if not to apostolical, at least to almost primitive times. And there are so many reasons, which will easily occur to the reader, why a rule so general and ancient should be if possible observed, that it cannot but be a subject of sincere gratification to every member of the church of England to observe, not only that it is distinctly repeated by the canons of 1604, but that, during the last few years, the practice of our bishops has been (more exactly, than at one period) in accordance with that rule.

But, to return to my more immediate purpose, I proceed to extract some orders upon the point, previous to the sixteenth century. First, the 99th of the oftenquoted excerpts of archbishop Egbert: "Presbytero

De Instit. Cleric. lib. 2. cap. 24. p. 338. ibid. See also the notes of Quesnel, upon the 10th epistle of S. Leo: where he attributes to that pontiff the first restriction laid upon the ancient customs. Amalarius says, that all the popes, from Clement to Simplicius, ordained only in the month of December. De Off. lib. 2. cap. 1. "Simplicius primus sacravit in Februario, ni fallor, Eullam ob aliam causam, nisi intimando conjungendos propinquius Christi corpori, qui per sacrum ministerium provehuntur." Edit. Hittorpius. p. 157. But there is ample evidence from records still

extant that Amalarius was mistaken and that the custom in the primitive ages, at Rome as in all other parts of the Catholic Church, was to ordain at any time of the year, when it was judged desirable or necessary. Mabillon in his Museum Italicum, tom. 2. p. 103, supposes that the frequent custom, certainly observed by some popes, to ordain only in the winter, was on account of the great heat of the summer, and the numerous duties to be fulfilled in the autumn: but Catalani derides this idea. Comment. in Pontif. tom. 1. p. 47.

rum vero et diaconorum in quatuor temporum sabbati scilicet, ut dum hæc ordinatio coram populo agitu sub omnium testificatione electorum ordinatorumqu opinio discutiatur." Again, of a council at Wir chester, soon after the Conquest, in which canon th "certain times" must be interpreted of the Embe days. "4. Quod ordinationes certis temporibus fiant." And lastly, the Pupilla oculi. “Celebrari possun sacri ordines generaliter in sabbatis quatuor tempo rum, et in sabbato ante dominicam in passione et i sabbato sancto paschæ in aliis autem temporibu nemini licet sacros ordines conferre nisi soli papæ : e si aliis temporibus conferantur ordinati recipiunt ordi nem; sed non executionem ordinis. Minores auten ordines licite conferuntur ab episcopis in diebus domi nicis et in aliis diebus solennibus, aut festis aliquibus sed non valde multis, ut non videatur generalem ordinationem facere." S1

Having, in a previous dissertation, (Vol. 1. p. cci.) remarked upon the strict rules which were anciently enforced, that all the sacraments should be freely administered, without charge or demand of money, I shall refer the reader to that place, and to the places from the Concilia which are there cited. These

29 Wilkins. Conc. tom. 1. p. 107. And the same archbishop in his penitential: "Hi sunt legitimi quatuor temporum dies, qui legitime observari debent: id est, Kal. Martii, prima hebdomada; et Kal. Junii, secunda hebdomada; et Kal. Septembr. tertia hebdomada; et Kal. Decembr. hebdomada proxima ante natale Christi."

Thorpe. Ancient Laws, vol. 2. p. 235.

30 Wilkins. Concil. tom. 1. p.

365.

31 Lib. vij. cap. 3.

32 An ancient political song of the time of Henry III., after complaining of some vices and immoralities of the clergy, proceeds:

"Donum Dei non donatur,