oddon hurl to diczanne 7 pat hine rýlfne on rýnnum tofulneгpуde fonpуnhtene nele æn hit J zeandettan betan æn he to pam ze nirt-læcep he mærrian anginne. (Ex Hom. Lupi, Episcopi. Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 99.) Two things are, through God's might, so great and important, that never can any man therein injure or diminish any thing: Baptism and Eucharist-hallowing. The mass-priest who can mass, and has the means of massing, is not so unsteady in the world, nor so base in his deeds, if he do either of these ministrations properly, unrighteous as may be his own life, that his ministration should be any the worse. Nor again, is any man so important, or of so holy a life, that he can add goodness or importance to either of these ministrations. Whatever may be done, God's own might is in these deeds through a holy mystery. But the wretched sinful man harmeth himself, notwithstanding, very terribly, who presumes to mass or receive the Eucharist, and knows himself abounding and altogether undone in sins, and will not confess and amend ere he presumes to begin massing. Whelock, in his annotations upon Bede, (p. 462.) has printed the first sentence in this extract, with a Latin translation.

26

"Sunt autem sacramenta, Baptismum et Chrisma, Corpus et Sanguis: quæ ob id sacramenta dicun ur, quia sub tegumento corporalium rerum, virtus divina secretius salutem eorundem sacramentorum operatur, unde et a secretis virtutibus, vel a sacris, sacramenta dicuntur." Hraban. Maur. de Institutione Cle.icorum, lib. I. cap. 24. Opp. Col. Agr. 1626. tom. VI. p. 8.

27 Cases have been supposed in which priests jo

cularly, or from accident, might say, Hoc est corpus meum, over a mass of bread in a baker's shop, or elsewhere. In such cases, it is determined, no transubstantiation would take place, because the parties did not intend to do what the Church does in prescribing the use of these words.

28 Tupa pe beo on pirum life acennede reo Forme acennedner is flærclic of fæder of meder seo oder acennedner is zartlic ponne pe beod zeedcennede on þam halzan Fulluhte on þam ur beod ealle rynna foлzirene puɲh þær halzan zarter gyfe. Seo þridde acennedner bið on þam zemænelicum æriste on þa beod une lichaman zeedcennede to unbɲorniendlicum lichaman. (Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 22.) Twice we are, in this life, born: the former birth is fleshly, of a father and a mother; the other is spiritual, when we are regenerated in the holy Baptism; in which all our sins are forgiven us through the Holy Ghost's grace. The third birth is in the general resurrection, in which our bodies will be regenerated into incorruptible bodies. (St. Matth. xix. 28.)

Duph clæne mæden crist peand geboren. ] puph clone fulluht pe rýndon ealle cristene geborene pe rceolon eac on ealɲe clannýrre healdan zyf pe ænige miltre begýtan sceolon æt zode. (Bibl. Bodl. MSS. Junii. 23. f. 79.) Through a clean maiden Crist was born, and through clean Baptism we are all born Cristens; that we should also in all cleanness hold, if we would get any mercy with God.

Seo zartlice acennednýr þ man gode beo acenned on þam halzan fulluhte puɲh þone halzan zast ir ur ungepunelic forðan þe pe zereon ne mazon

hpær Sær bið gefremmed on pam zerullodan menn. Du geryxt hine besýppan on reiɲan pætere. I eft up ateon mid þam ÿlcan hipe pe he hæfde æror ær þan þe he dufe· ac reo halize modor þe is zoder zelaðunz pat † † cild bið rýnfull bedyped inn to þam fante. 7 bið up abɲoden fram rynnum aðpozen þuph halize Fulluht. Duɲh adames forzæzednesse. Je zodes bebod tobræc· beoð þa cild sýnfulle· ac þurh zodes sÿlfes gÿfe heopa rýnna beoð adýlezode hi goder menn beohi of flærclicum gepundað zartlice J zoder beann zehatene spa spa ur bec reczað. (Bibl. Publ. Cant. MSS. Ii. 4—6. p. 557.) The spiritual birth, that man be born to God in holy Baptism, through the Holy Ghost, is not familiar to our observation; for that we cannot see what is there accomplished in baptised persons. Thou seest him bedipped in the sheer (pure) water, and again drawn up with the same hue that he had before, ere that he dived; but the holy mother, that is, God's Church, knows that that child is bedipped sinful into the font, and is taken up washed from sins through that holy Baptism. Through Adam's transgression, who God's commandment broke, those children are sinful; but through the grace of God himself their sins are blotted out, and they become God's men, (servants,) and they of fleshly are made spiritual, and are called God's children, even as the (sacred) books tell us.

The last of these three extracts is printed by Whelock, (in Bed. 63.) with an additional clause, at the beginning, stating that the ordinary processes of birth and growth are familiar to human observation. Of this clause, however, the chief practical

use appears to be that it serves to explain the word ungepunelic, literally unwonted, which occurs in the extract given above, and which has been rendered, "not familiar to our observation." Whelock renders the word by invisibilis.

29 The following rubrics relating to these curious facts in the ecclesiastical antiquities of England, are extracted from an imperfect Pontifical in the British Museum, beautifully written, and, for the most part, anterior to the Conquest. (MSS. Cotton. Tiberius, C. 1.) After the directions for baptizing the parties, brought for that purpose, (who were thrice totally immersed,) are found the following directions, f. 72.

"Pontifex vero egreditur a fonte in sacrarium habens ibi sedem compositam, vel in ecclesia, ubi voluerit, et sedet in ea; ut, cum vestiti fuerint infantes, confirmet eos; et deportentur ipsi infantes ante eum, et det singulis stolam candidam et crismale, et x siliquas, dicens, Accipe vestem candidam, sanctam, et immaculatam, quam proferas ante tribunal Christi in vita eterna. Pax tibi. Amen. Et sic vestiuntur. Induti, vero, ordinantur per ordinem sicut scripti sunt in circuitu. Et cum omnes baptizati fuerint infantes, statuantur per ordinem, et juniores, quidem, in brachiis dextris tenentur; majores, vero, pedem ponant super pedem dextrum patrini sui, sive matrine sue. Et nemo carnalem filium aut filiam de baptismo suscipiat, vel ad confirmationem habeat: ut sit discretio inter carnalem et spiritualem generationem ; et qui non est confirmatus nullum ad confirmandum habeat. Et datis, orat pontifex super eos, confirmans eos. Si, vero, episcopus adest, statim confir

mari eos oportet chrismate, et postea communicare: et si episcopus deest, communicentur a presbytero corpore et sanguine Christi, dicente ita: Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat te in vitam eternam."

Ex eod. Pontif. f. 75. "Ilud, autem, de parvulis providendum est, ne postquam baptizati fuerint, ullum cibum accipiant, neque lactentur, sine summa necessitate, antequam communicent sacramentum corporis Christi; et postea per totam hebdomadam pasche, omnibus diebus, ad missam veniant, et parentes eorum, pro ipsis offerant, et communicent omnes."

This last clause accounts for the origin of Easter offerings; which, although disregarded from their insignificance in country-parishes, are of some importance where the population is large, and, as the case commonly stands, the clergyman's provision is scanty. Likewise, it hence appears, that such offerings were anciently claimable, not only from parishioners who have attained the age of puberty, or thereabouts, but from all parishioners who had passed the first Easter, or Whitsuntide, after birth; all such persons being baptised, and immediately becoming communicants, as a matter of course.

30 From the MS., used in the last note, (f. 78.) the following extract has been made to illustrate the ritual Pediluvium, and the use of oil for the sick. The passages occur in a sermon to be preached on the day before Good-Friday, or in Coena Domini, as the day was called, and they mention other particulars relating to the celebration of that day.

66

Hodie, namque in forma servi, quam propter nos accepit, pedes discipulorum lavit, et nobis hu