the fader had doo make redy the dyner, and called many clerkes to this diner."

It was, however, on Holy Innocents' day that the boybishop, chosen on the feast of St. Nicholas, played his part in a set of pontificals provided for him. At St. Paul's, at York Minster, and at Lincoln, we find recorded in the in

ventories pontificals provided for his use. In the parish church of St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, the churchwardens paid for "a myter for a bysshop at St. Nicholas tyde." At this parish church, too, there was a store of copes, a mitre, and a crosier for the boy-bishop; whilst at St. Mary's, Sandwich, the inventory contains "a lytyll chasebyll for Seynt Nicholas bysschop," and at York there were "nine copes for the boy attendants.

On the feast of Holy Innocents the boy-bishop was frequently expected to preach a sermon, which had been written for him. One such, written for a boy in St. Paul's school by Erasmus, is still extant. Until Archbishop Peckham's day the "little Nicholas and his clerks" used to take a conspicuous place in the services of the church during the octave of the feast, but in 1279 that prelate decreed that the celebration should be confined to the one day of the feast only. That this feast was popular, and that our forefathers delighted in coming to their parish churches to witness their children associated in this ceremonial around God's altar, may be judged from the statute of Roger de Mortival, Bishop of Sarum in 1319, in which he forbids too much treating of the children, and orders that the crowd at the procession are not to hustle or hinder the boys as they do their ceremonies.

Hardly had the festivals connected with Christmas been celebrated, than on the second day of February the Feast of the Purification, known as Candlemas Day, was kept. From the earliest times our English forefathers gathered together in their parish churches on that day, for the blessing of the candles and for the procession with lighted tapers, as the symbols of the burning love of their hearts for Christ, and in memory of the presentation of our Blessed Lord in the Temple. Ælfric, the Saxon homilist, speaks of the feast in his days, and the celebration remained the same till the change of religion.

"Be it known also to every one," he says, "that it is appointed in the ecclesiastical observances, that we on this day bear our lights to church and let them there be blessed: and that we should go afterwards with the light among God's houses and sing the hymn that is thereto appointed. Though some men cannot sing, they can, nevertheless, bear the light in their hands; for on this day was Christ the true light borne to the temple, Who redeemed us from darkness, and bringeth us to the Eternal Light, who liveth and ruleth for ever."

ASH WEDNESDAY.-The great fast of Lent, which was a time devoted to penance for sins, and in which sorrow for offences was increased by the continual memory of Christ's suffering and death for mankind, was ushered in by what was known as Shrove-tide. This was the week that followed Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. As its name imports, it was the time when Christians were urged to prepare their souls for the weeks of Lenten penance by confessing their sins to God through their parish priest,

or, as they said, shriving themselves. "Now is a clean and holy tide drawing nigh," said a homilist, "in which we should make amends for our heedlessness; let, therefore, every Christian man come unto his confessor, and confess his secret guilt."

On Ash Wednesday in each parish church, before the celebration of Mass, ashes were blessed, and each man, woman, and child came and knelt before their priest to have them strewn upon their heads, whilst his words reminded them that they "were dust, and unto dust they

would return." After the distribution of the ashes, according to an ancient English custom, if there were another church in the same district, all the people went to it in procession, and, having made there "a stay," or statio, for prayer, returned to their own church for Mass. With Ash Wednesday began the strict fast of Lent, which had to be kept on all days except Sundays; and even then no meat was permitted. On the week-days the fast was not allowed to be broken till after Mass and Vespers had been said in the parish church; that is, before eleven or twelve o'clock. The Anglo-Saxon Ecclesiastical Institutes speaks of those days of Lent as "the tithing-days of the year," which all good Christians should render to God most strictly. "Every Sunday at this holy tide," says the same authority, "people should go to house!," a practice which was not preserved in the later middle ages. The time of Lent was also known as the "holy time," and unnecessary and distracting business was as far as possible avoided. Thus, for instance, the assizes were prohibited during the whole period.

THE LENTEN CURTAIN.-From the evening before the first Sunday of Lent till the Thursday before Easter, what was known as the "Lenten curtain," or "Lenten veil," hung down in all parish churches between the chancel and the nave. It was one of the "ornaments" which the parishioners were bound to provide, and the churchwardens' accounts contain many references to it, both as to its provision and as to the expenses of erection. It was made of white stuff or linen, and hid the sanctuary from the people, except at the reading of the Gospel and until the Orate Fratres, when it was pulled aside. It was also drawn back on all feast

days kept during Lent. The order that the confessions of women should be heard "outside the veil," in the sight of all but out of hearing, refers to the Lenten veil. "The veil," says the Liber Festivalis, "that all the Lent has been drawn. between the altar and the choir betokeneth the prophecy of Christ's Passion, which was hidden and unknown till these days." But in these three last days of Holy Week it "is done away (with), and the altar openly schowed to all men; for on these days Christ suffered openly His Passion."

Upon the first Monday in Lent all the crucifixes and images of every kind, both large and small, were covered with white cloths; or in the case of those niches which had their own wooden doors, these were closed till the eve of Easter. The linen or silk coverings were worked or painted with a red cross, and the “red cross” had its peculiar significance in the ritual of the English Church. The procession on each Sunday in Lent was not allowed to be headed by the ordinary Crux processionalis, but a wooden cross painted red, in reference to the shedding of our Lord's blood upon the cross in the throes of His crucifixion, was substituted for it. That the practice had a special meaning to our forefathers seems to be the case, since Sir Thomas More walked to execution, as Cresacre More says, "carrying in his hands a red cross." Langland, too, in his vision makes “ Conscience " say that

“ These aren Cristes armes.

Hus colours and hus cote-armure, and he that cometh so blody,
Hit is Crist with his crois, conqueror of crystine."

PALM SUNDAY.-The dramatic ceremonies of Holy Week commenced with those of Palm Sunday. "This week now