æfter mihte zodcunder pordes roðlice Ljuster lıchama hir blod na rpa þeah lichamlice ac zartlice. Micel ir betpux þam lichaman þe Crist on propode 7. þam lichaman de to hurle br zeзеhalzod. Se lichama roolice pe Lrist on propode pær geboren of Manian flærce mid blode 7 mid banum mid Felle mid rinum on mennircum limum mid gerceadpirne raple zeliffært hir zartlica lichama de pe hurel hatað is of manezum cornum zezaderod· buton blode 7 bane limlear.

rapullear and nis forþi nan ing dap on to understandenne lichamlice ac ir eall gastlice to undestandenne. (L'Isle's Serm. on Easter Day, 6. Wheloc. in Bed. 471. Foxe II. 1043. Bibl. Publ. Cant. MSS. Ii. 4-6. p. 307. Gg. 3-28. p. 357.) Much is betwixt the invisible might of the holy housel, and the visible shape of his proper nature. It is naturally corruptible bread, and corruptible wine; and is, by might of God's word, truly Crist's body and his bloud; not so, notwithstanding, bodily, but ghostly. Much is betwixt the body Crist suffered in, and the body that is hallowed to housel. The body, truly, that Crist suffered in was borne of the flesh of Marie, with blood and with bone, with skin and with sinewes, in humane limbs, with a reasonable soul living; and his ghostly body, which we call the housel, is gathered of many cornes, without bloud and bone, without limb, without soule; and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily, but all is ghostly to be understood. L'Isle's Transl.

23 Both these epistles are contained in Junius, 121, among the Bodleian MSS. The first, which begins at f. 101, is entitled Epistola de Canonibus,

and is addressed to bishop Wulfsine. It is a general account of such canonical regulations as the writer thought, probably, most material for the guidance of ordinary clergymen. Spelman and Wilkins have both printed a considerable portion of this epistle from a mutilated MS. at Cambridge; as it seems, from Gg. 3-28, a quarto volume in the public library, lettered upon the back, Elfrici Sermones, and pronounced by Wanley to have formed a part of Leofric's donation to the church of Exeter. Spelman has, indeed, by his heading of this epistle, rather intimated, that he has taken what he has published of it from a MS. in the library of Corpus Christi College; but the copy there seems to be complete, and the learned editor's transcript ends thus: hi on heora bedde lagon þonne hi zeznemmedon. Exactly here the MS. in the public library is defective. Spelman adds, Reliqua abscidit nequam aliquis plagiarius, nec labore reparanda sunt, vel pretio.” The following is among the matter which this worthless pilferer has torn away, and it will probably supply a sufficient explanation of his act. Some priests keepe the housel that is consecrate on Easter-day, all the yeare for sicke men. But they doe greatly amisse, because it waxeth hoary. And these will not understand how grievous penance the pœnitential booke teacheth by this, if the housel become hoary or rotten, or if it bee lost, or bee eaten of mouse or beast, by negligence. Men shall reserve more carefully that holy housel, and not reserve it too long, but consecrate other of new for sicke men alwayes within a weeke or a fortnight, that it bee not so much as hoary. For so holy is the housel which to-day is hallowed, as that which

on Easter-day was hallowed.

That housel is

Christ's body, not bodily, but ghostly. Not the body which he suffered in, but the body of which hee spake, when he blessed bread and wine to housel a night before his suffering, and said by the blessed bread, This is my body; and againe by the holy wine, This is my blood which is shed for many, in forgivenesse of sins. Understand now that the Lord, who could turne that bread before his suffering to his body, and that wine to his bloud ghostly; that the selfe same Lord blesseth daily, through the priest's hands, bread and wine to his ghostly body, and to his ghostly bloud." (L'Isle's Transl.) To this extract is appended the original Saxon. This is also to be seen with a Latin version in Whelock's Bede, (p. 332.) and the greatest part of it in Foxe, (p. 1041.) who was probably the original transcriber. Whelock, however, who published subsequently to Spelman, seems to have been wholly unaware of the fact, that this passage belongs to the mutilated epistle of Elfric, which that learned knight communicated to the world.

Of Elfric's second epistle, which begins at f. 111, in the Bodleian MS. and is entitled, De Secunda Epistola Quando Dividitur Crisma, that portion has been repeatedly published, which overthrows a confidence in the antiquity of a belief in transubstantiation. This is found in Foxe, L'Isle, and Whelock. The following is the concluding and most important portion of it, as presented by L'Isle. "The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering, and saith, that the bread was his owne body, and that the wine was

truly his bloud; he halloweth daily, by the hands of the priest, bread to his body, and wine to his bloud, in ghostly mystery, (on zastlicere zerýne: sic, to pitanne heofena ɲicer zepinu: to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. St. Matt. xiii. 11.) as wee read in bookes. And yet that lively bread is not bodily so, notwithstanding: not the selfe same body that Crist suffered in. Nor that holy wine is the Saviour's bloud which was shed for us, in bodily thing, but in ghostly understanding. Both bee truly that bread his body, and that wine also his bloud, and was the heavenly bread, which wee call Manna, that fed, forty yeares, God's people. And the cleare water which did then run from the stone in the wildernesse, was truly his bloud, as Paul wrote on some of his Epistles, Omnes patres nostri eandem escam spiritualem manducaverunt, et omnes eundem potum spiritualem biberunt, &c. All our fathers ate, in the wildernesse, the same ghostly meat, and dranke the same ghostly drinke. They dranke of that ghostly stone, and that stone was Crist. The Apostle hath said, as you now have heard, that they all did eat the same ghostly meat, and they all did drinke the same ghostly drinke. And hee saith not bodily, but ghostly. And Crist was not yet borne, nor his bloud shed, when that the people of Israel ate that meat, and dranke of that stone. And the stone was not bodily Crist, though hee so said. It was the same mystery in the old Law, and they did ghostly signifie that ghostly housel of our Saviour's body, which wee consecrate now."

This epistle contains various directions for public worship, the Decalogue, according to prevailing,

but discreditable usage, the eight great vices, with their antagonistic virtues, and some general admonitions.

Of Elfric's two epistles copies in Latin are preserved among the Parker MSS. in the library of C. C. C. C. (CCLXV.) a volume referred to the eleventh century, and containing various canonical sanctions. In the second of these epistles, the part which corresponds with the extract above, (p. 177,) has been carefully erased with a knife. We are at no loss for a reason why. When, however, the MS. came once more, at the Reformation, into the hands of those who held the ancient doctrine, this passage was restored from another MS. and a marginal note was appended, explaining the alteration of the hand, and the scraped appearance of the parchment.