offices, consisting chiefly of extracts and collections from the old canons and orders of the church of England. From the time of St. Augustine of Canterbury down to the middle of the sixteenth century the church of England held that the sacraments are seven in number. They are named and, in a certain sense, distinguished in a provincial statute of archbishop Peckham, in the year 1281: "Septem ecclesiæ sunt sacramenta, quorum dispensatores sunt prælati ecclesiæ; quorum quinque ab omnibus debent recipi Christianis; utpote baptismus, confirmatio, pœnitentia, eucharistia, extrema unctio; sunt et alia duo sacramenta, scil. ordo et matrimonium, quorum primum perfectis convenit, secundum vero novi testamenti tempore solum convenit imperfectis."1 ... The statute says "sacramenta, quorum dispensatores sunt prælati ecclesiæ:" upon which Lyndwood's gloss is; "Hic vocantur prælati nedum superiores, ut episcopi: sed etiam inferiores, ut archidiaconi, presbyteri plebani, et rectores ecclesiarum. Unde quoad hanc dispensationem quilibet, qui præest curæ animarum, dicitur esse prælatus, dummodo habeat potestatem sacramenta dispensandi." That is (as he proceeds to explain) of course in their degree, confirmation and orders being committed only to the bishops. The church of England throughout the middle ages constantly insisted upon all her priests being 1 Wilkins, Concilia, tom. 2. p. 56. Compare also Concilium Dunelm., "De numero sacramentorum," tom. 1. p. 574: "Imperfectis, sc. Laicis, qui respectu clericorum dicuntur imperfecti." Lyndwood, lib. 1. tit. 7, Ignorantia, verb. Imperfectis. 2 Lib. I. tit. vij, Ignorantia, verb. Prælati. prepared, if called upon, to perform the duties of their sacred ministry: and indeed not only parishpriests, but every priest, when it might be necessary and without intrusion upon another's charge. To this carefulness in a great degree, and not to any general laxity of living and manners among the English clergy in medieval times, are attribute those frequent provincial and diocesan statutes, that priests should live piously, orderly, and in the severe practice of all religious duties. we to We find repeated canons and orders that the sacraments were to be administered to the people, freely and without charge. It would have been idle to have insisted upon the necessity that all men should receive some of them, and nevertheless, by tacitly permitting money to be paid and demanded for the administration, put the reception of them out of the reach of the poor. First then in the year 1126, the second canon of the council of London: "Interdicimus, ut pro chrismate, pro oleo, pro baptismate, pro pœnitentia, pro visitatione infirmorum, seu unctione, pro communione corporis Christi, pro sepultura nullum omnino pretium exigatur." Another, to the same effect, was enacted at the synod of Westminster, A.D. 1138, adding the "desponsatio mulierum" and the sentence "quod qui præsumpserit, excommunicationi subjaceat." Again: by the council of London in the last year of the same century, A. D. 1200: "Canon viij. Nihil exigendum pro sacramentis ad.. inhibemus: ne a personis eccle ministrandis. 4 3 Wilkins, Concilia, tom. I. p. 408. • Ibid. p. 415. siasticis deducendis ad sedem, vel sacerdotibus vel aliis clericis instituendis, aut sepeliendis mortuis, aut benedicendis nubentibus, seu pro chrismate, seu quibuslibet aliis sacramentis aliquid exigatur." 5 Passing by a statute of a council of Durham, A.D. 1220, to the same purpose, "sub pœna suspensionis;"6 another, of a provincial constitution at Oxford, in 1222, by archbishop Stephen Langton, upon which Lyndwood's gloss should be consulted; we come to the legatine constitution of Otho: "De septem sacramentis, ut gratis conferantur. Sacramenta ecclesiastica, in quibus, tanquam in vasis cœlestibus, salutis remedia continentur: necnon oleum sanctificatum et chrisma, a ministris ecclesiæ pure atque devote, qualibet exclusa cupiditatis labe, statuimus, et statuendo præcipimus exhiberi, nulla difficultate in eis adhibita exhibendis, prætextu consuetudinis alicujus, qua dicantur ab eis, qui ea recipiunt, aliquibus aliqua persolvenda." Upon this statute John de Athon has a gloss, to which I must refer the reader.10 And, to name no more, similar regulations and orders were made in a diocesan synod of Worcester in 1240, of Norwich in 1257, and of Exeter in 1287."1 The sacrament of baptism (as might be expected) very early attracted the attention of the rulers of the Church, that it might be decently and duly administered. The σωτήριον βάπτισμα, the θεῖον καὶ ζωοποιὸν βάπτισμα of the fathers was not looked upon in the Anglo-saxon church as a mere ceremony, but as a necessary means by which men might be saved. As St. Cyril of Jerusalem taught in the fourth century, speaking of baptism, ev Tậ αὐτῷ ἀπεθνήσκετε καὶ ἐγεννᾶσθε· καὶ τὸ σωτήριον ἐκεῖνο ὕδωρ καὶ τάφος ὑμῖν ἐγίνετο καὶ μήτηρ,12 so did archbishop Ælfric, in his easter homily, teach in like manner, "that the heathen child is baptized, and changes not its outer form, although inwardly converted; it is carried to the font sinful through Adam's transgression and is washed inwardly from all its sin, yet changes not its outward form. So also the holy font-water, which is called the wellspring of life, is outwardly like any other water and subject to corruption: but the Holy Ghost descends with power upon the corruptible water through the blessing of the priest, and through that ghostly might all sin is washed away both of the body and the soul." 13 vel quamvis aliam speciem ex- "ad usum Sarum," upon vellum, given to the library of the cathedral of Salisbury by the late bishop Denison, is the following 12 Catech. mystag. 2. Opera, exhortation. It is noted; and P. 312. 13 Hom. in di. sanctum pascha, § 4. Cf. Beda, Hist. eccl. lib. 2. c. 5. On a blank leaf of a most magnificent manuscript breviary the doxology is the earliest which I remember to have seen in English with the notation. The writing is later than the rest of the volume, being about 1470: "Remember youre promys The English provincial and diocesan synods are full of orders relating to the administration of this sacrament, beginning with the penitential of archbishop Theodore in the seventh century. Iteration of baptism was strictly forbidden: "1. Qui bis baptizati sunt ignoranter, non indigent pro eo penitentiam, nisi quod, secundum canones, non possunt ordinari nisi pro magna necessitate. 2. Qui autem non ignoranter iterum baptizati sunt, quasi iterum Christum crucifixerunt, vj annos poeniteant," &c. Again, on another point: "Si quis episcopus aut presbyter non trinam mersionem in baptismo celebret sed semel mergat, quod dare videtur in morte Domini, deponatur; non enim dixit nobis Dominus: In morte mea baptizate, sed, 'Ite, docete omnes gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti." "14 Shortly afterwards in the excerpts of Egbert, archbishop of York, we find two canons: “x. Ut a cunctis sacerdotibus jus et tempus baptismatis temporibus congruis, secundum canonicam institutionem, cautissime observentur. XI. Ut omnes sacerdotes, quibuscunque horis, omnibus indigentibus baptismum, infirmitatis causa, diligentissime tribuant." And immediately following made yn baptym. And chrystys mercyful bloud shedyng. By the wyche most holy sprynklyng. Off all youre syns youe haue fre perdon. Haue mercy uppon me, oo god. Affter thy grat mercy. And accordyng to the multytude of the mercys. Do a wey my wyckydness. Glory be to the father, and to the son, and to the holy goost. As hyt was yn the begynnyng, so now, and euer, and yn the world off worlds, so be hyt. By the wyche." 14 Liber pænit. cap. xxxviij. 1, xlviij. 20; Thorpe, vol. 2. pp. 45, 58. VOL. I. r |