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fuerint consedentes, nedum corporum sed etiam animarum capiant alimenta, præcipimus quod dum fratres sacerdotes in mensa fuerint congregati, legat unus literatus coram eis per aliquod competens temporis spatium, aut de Biblia aut de scriptura sacra alia, lectionem; quem dum in legendo fuerit, fratres silentium tenendo, attente audiant et auscultent." P. 1164.

Cardinal Wolsey, in the year 1519, drew up some statutes for the regular canons of S. Augustine: of which one is directed to the collation: Wilkins, Concil. tom. 3. p. 686. In the royal injunctions of 1536, there is an order referring to "all sermones, and other collations." Ibid. p. 814. Again, in the same year, a royal letter to the bishops, commands each "to travel from place to place in all his diocese, and endeavour himself every holiday to make a collation to the people." Ibid. p. 825. Once more, the bishop of London, in 1542, admonished his clergy what they were to teach, in their "preachings, open sermons, and collations." Ibid. p. 866. I have quoted these, as illustrative of the meaning of the term, down to the period at which it became, in such a sense, obsolete.

Dr. Oliver, in his work, the "Monasticon diœcesis Exoniensis," mentions a manuscript, formerly belonging to the priory of S. Andrew's, Cornwall, containing several books bound together: among them thirtythree homilies, which from the description given by the learned author, seems to have been the "liber collationum" of that priory. He says: "One of these was read at the collation or evening refreshment granted to the community before complin, on most of the weekdays in Lent: viz. from the first Monday until the last Wednesday inclusively; for no collation was allowed on the four first days, nor on the last three

P. 36. This would

days of that penitential season." certainly account for the number thirty-three in this case; but the use of Ford abbey was different: as they had "collations" not only at other times of the year, as I have already mentioned, but the manuscript contains, "On asche wedensday a collacōn:" followed by, "For the fyrst weke of clene Lent a collacion."

P. cxlix. l. 4. White Kennett has plainly confused the two books, in the glossary prefixed to his parochial antiquities. The day of the "obit" was not always the day of the death of the individual, as Dr. Todd has well observed in his learned preface to the Dublin Martyrology, p. xxix: whence care must be taken in deciding, on the ground of such entries only, the date of the decease of an individual. Thus in a very early canon, the 17th of the council of Cloveshoo, in 747, we find the day of the burial ordered to be observed as an obit; Wilkins, concil. tom. 1. p. 97.

The calendars of any service-books, where regular necrologies were not kept, were used for the purpose of entering obits and festivals to be observed. William of Worcester in his Itinerary mentions many such 1; see, for example, p. 107: and numberless manuscripts still extant, prove the same thing. In the very curious inventory printed in the Archæologia, vol. 21. of effects belonging to Sir John Fastolfe, in the 15th century, occurs, belonging to his chapel, “j. Morlellege." The editor explains this, in a note, to have been the martyrology; which I much doubt: and

"In more ancient times the lecture was taken from one of the twenty-four Collationes Patrum, or conferences of the fathers in

the desert, and by degrees the refreshment itself obtained the name of collation." Ibid.

should decide it to have been the book of obits, observed in that family. It is scarcely probable that the reading of the martyrology would have formed a part of the services and devotions of a private household.

P. clxx. l. 20. In the year 1535, the archbishop of York writes to the king: "Opon good Fridaye last past, I charged the treasorer of Yorke, that he sholde leave out the colett pro papa, lykewies I charged the deacon that songe the hymne Exultet angelica in the halowinge of the paschall, that he sholde leave ouzt mention therein made de papa." Ellis. Orig. Letters. 3rd Series. 2. 329.

With respect to the ridiculous citation of archbishop Becket, I must correct an error in the note. (85.) The date which I have ascribed there to a diary, occurs in an official letter from a public officer, Penison, to the prime minister, Cromwell. As to the fact however, I would remark further, that archbishop Parker, a contemporary, appears to have believed it. De ant. ecc. p. 209.

In the year 1555, there was published an order by cardinal Pole, that all these rased names should be restored. "Id etiam curent, ut sacrorum canonum instituta in omnibus observentur, et nomen divi Thomæ martyris, necnon sanctissimi domini nostri papæ ex libris dispunctum, in illis restituatur, et pro eo secundum morem ecclesiæ, ut ante schisma fiebat, oretur." Wilkins. tom. 4. p. 139.

P. clxxviij. note. Besides authors, whose prejudices, some might say, led them to condemn the wholesale confiscation by Henry viij th of sacred property, other writers speak no less plainly. Selden condemns it, in his history of tithes, p. 471, 486. (edit. 1618.) White Kennett also, in his history of Impropriations,

p. 186. 438. and to name no more; in his parochial antiquities, vol. 2. p. 64. and p. 51.

P. clxxxj. note. 97. Richard Layton writes thus to Cromwell, in a letter in which he invites him to his house. "Simeon was never so glade to se Chryst his master, as I shalbe to se your Lordeshipe in this your owne house, and all that ever shalbe in hit for my lyffe." Original letters. series. 3. vol. 3. p. 71.

I am not an advocate for the restoration in this country of the old monastic system, and, I confess, regard with some suspicion and dislike the arguments which have, lately, been produced in favour of it. Nor do I wish to varnish over the abuses which prevailed in it, at the beginning of the sixteenth century. But, if we would desire to arrive at a just judgment, as to the state and morals of the monks and nuns of England at that time,—neither listening too much to exaggerated statements of vice and profligacy upon the one hand; nor to flattering descriptions of faultless excellence and purity upon the other;-we must not forget to enquire, as accurately as possible, into the personal character of those witnesses, upon whose evidence mainly, an unqualified condemnation has been pronounced against them.

P. cevj. 7. 25. Fonts were ordered to be kept locked: thus; by a constitution of archbishop Edmund, A. D. 1236. "Fontes sub serura clausi teneantur." Concil. tom. 1. p. 636. In the province of York also, among the necessary furniture of churches, there was ordered in the same century, "fons sacer cum serura." Ibid. p. 698. cf. tom. 2. p. 280. In some churches, the remains of the ancient fastenings may still be seen.

There is an abuse, too generally prevalent in mo

dern times, upon which I must make a brief remark : namely, that clergymen should suffer a common and small bason to supply the place of a font. It is a fact scarcely credible (remembering the doctrine of the church of England in this matter, and the rubrics of her office of public baptism), that in many churches, of large and populous parishes, there actually is not a font. I cannot conceive a reason, why any person can permit so scandalous an indecency: and it is much to be wished, that the ordinaries both had the power, and would exercise it, of enforcing obedience to the rules of the church in this respect. I would quote one or two directions regarding it, since the reformation. From the "Booke of certaine Canons," in 1571. "They shall see, that in euery churche there be a holy founte, not a basen, wherein Baptisme may be ministred, and it be kept comely and cleane." Edit. J. Daye. 4to. Again, the visitation articles of Bancroft, bishop of London, in 1601: "x. Whether doth your parsonbaptize in your parish church or chappel, any infants, not in the fonte, according to the ancient custom, but in a bason?"

I would add here, a rubric, in an early pontifical (imperfect, and apparently English), preserved in the library of the university of Cambridge. (Ll. 2. 10.) After the third dipping; "Et tertio dicens, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen. tunc projiciens eum in fontem discedat : dans locum hominibus eum elevandi de fonte, dicens orationem hanc: Deus omnipotens, etc."

P. ccix. l. 17. Upon this whole subject, the student should consult a work, in which there is much curious learning, by Cangiamila, "Embryologia sacra, sive de officio sacerdotum, medicorum, et aliorum circa æternam parvulorum in utero existentium salutem." Pa

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