ones, the feet of thirteen poor people were washed with great solemnity, and they were fed and served at their meal by the dignitaries of the place, in memory of our Lord's act of humility in washing the feet of His disciples. This "Maundy" was kept also in England by kings and nobles, and even by private individuals, who on this day entertained Christ's poor in their houses.

The Absolution-Thursday in Holy Week was also known to our forefathers as "absolution day," because, after tenebræ, in the evening, in larger churches, the people knelt before the penitentiary in acknowledgment of their repentance of sin, and received from him a token of God's acceptance by a rod being placed on their heads. Sometimes this voluntary humiliation and discipline was performed on Good Friday, and the rods touched the hands of the penitent. It was to this rite Sir Thomas More refers in his book against Tyndall, where he says

"Tyndale is as lothe, good, tender pernell, to take a lyttle penaunce of the prieste, as the lady was to come any more to dyspelying that wept even for tender heart twoo dayes after when she talked of it, that the priest had on Good Friday with the dyspelyng rodde beaten her hard on her lylye white hands."

The church accounts sometimes refer to the purchase of rods for this purpose by the wardens.

The Sepulchre.-The service of Maundy Thursday morning included the consecration of two hosts, besides that which the celebrant received at the Communion of the Mass. At the conclusion of the service these two hosts were carried to some becoming place till the following day, when one was used in the Mass of the Presanctified, and the other was

N

placed in a pyx and put along with the cross, which had just been kissed and venerated, into what was known as the "Easter Sepulchre." On the afternoon of Good Friday

it was customary for

people in the towns to make visits to the various churches to pray at these sepulchres. There is no expense more constantly recorded in all the parochial accounts than that for the erection and taking down of the Easter Sepulchre. Generally, no doubt, it was a more or less elaborate, although temporary, erection of wood, hung over with the most precious curtains and hangings which the church possessed, some of which were even frequently left for this special purpose. Here

in this "chapel of repose" the Blessed Sacrament was placed at the conclusion of the Mass of the Presanctified, and here the priest and people watched and prayed before it till early in the morning of Easter day.

There are, however, in England some interesting instances of permanent "tombs" being erected to serve as the

Easter Sepulchre. Some people in their wills left money to have a structure for the "altar of repose," worthy of its purpose, built over the spot on which they themselves desired to be buried.

After the morning service of Maundy Thursday, the high altar, and then all the altars in the church, were stripped of their ornaments and cloths and were left bare, in memory of the way our Blessed Lord was stripped of His garments before His crucifixion. In the evening of the same day all the altars were washed with wine and blessed water, the minister saying at each the prayer of the Saint to whom the altar was dedicated; then he and all the clerks, having devoutly kissed the stone slab, retired in silence.

GOOD FRIDAY.-The chief feature in the morning service of Good Friday was undoubtedly the "adoration of the Cross" and the ceremonial kissing of it, better known in England as the "Creeping to the Cross." The meaning of this act of worship is set out in Dives and Pauper so clearly that there can be no doubt as to what our forefathers intended by it.

"Pauper.-In the same manner lewd men should do their worship before the thing, making his prayer before the thing and not to the thing.

"Dives.-On the other hand, on Good Friday above all in holy Church men creep to the church and worship the cross.

"Pauper. That is so, but not as thou meanest the cross that we creep to and worship so highly that time is Christ himself that died on the cross that day for our sins and our sake. For the shape of man is a cross, and as He hung upon the rood He was a very He is that cross, as all doctors say, to whom we pray and say, Ave crux, spes unica- Hail be thou Cross, our only hope,' etc.

cross.

And as Bede saith; for as much as Christ was most despised of mankind on Good Fryday, therefore Holy Church hath ordeyned that on the Good Fryday men should do Him that great high worship that day, not to the crosse that the priest holdeth in his hand, but to Hym that died for us all that day upon the crosse."

Archbishop Simon Mepham (1327-1333) issued a special Constitution as to the way in which this solemn day was to be kept throughout England.

"We order and ordain," he says, "that this holy day of Good Friday, on which our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ after many stripes laid down His precious life on the Cross for the salvation of men, according to the custom of the Church should be passed in reading, silence, prayer and fasting with tearful sorrow."

For which reason this Synod forbade all servile work on this great day; the archbishop adding, however, that this did not apply to the poor, and that the rich might show their charity to the poor by aiding them in work upon their land. The canonist Lyndwood points out, in commenting on this provision, that by "silence" the archbishop probably intends to prohibit all shouting or noise, all loud talking or disputes, which might interfere with the solemnity of this commemoration.

HOLY SATURDAY.-The service of this day probably began at a late hour, as, according to primitive custom, it was the Office of a Vigil. The first act in the long Office was the blessing of the new fire, which had previously been struck by a steel out of flint. After a candle had been lit at the new fire, the procession passed from outside the western door, where this first portion of the ceremony had

been held, into the church for the blessing of the Paschal Candle. The preparation of this symbol of "the risen Lord," with the five glorified grains of incense, to remind all of His five sacred wounds, was one of the yearly parochial works. The charges for it are to be found in every book of church accounts: money was collected for the purpose, people gave presents towards it, and in some places-at St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, for instance-goods in kind were placed in the hands of the wardens, in order that the hiring-out of them might pay for the annual "paschal." To this practice of having their annual "paschal," the people clung somewhat tenaciously on the change of religion; and as late as 1586, at Great Yarmouth, charges were made by the churchwardens for taking down and putting up "the Paschal."

The Paschal, apparently, was commonly a lofty construction: a tall thick piece of wood painted to represent a candle, and ornamented, rested in the socket of the candlestick, and on the top of this, at a great height, was the real candle. For some reason not known, the wooden part was called by our English ancestors the "Judas of the Paschal." On this day also, in every parish church, the font was hallowed with impressive and symbolic ceremonies.

EASTER DAY.-"On this day," says an English fourteenth-century sermon book-"on this day all the people receive the Holy Communion." This was apparently the universal custom; and although in preparation for this Easter duty the parishioners were advised to go to their parish priest at the beginning of Lent, there are indications that during the last days of Holy Week there was sometimes a