could well be done; otherwise, in as convenient and honourable place, and as near the high Altar as possible;" in which the Sacrament was to be kept "in a Pyx furnished inside with a very clean linen cloth."

III. In the later Greek Church, the consecrated Bread, which is to be kept for the Viaticum of the sick and dying, "being broken into little particles [margarita, or pearls], and sufficiently tinged and moistened in the consecrated Wine, they take them out of the Chalice, and dry them in a small dish, set under a pan of coals, and then put them into a pyx or box to be reserved. This box [artophorion, or bread-holder], whether of silver or wood, is put up into a silken case, the better to defend what is enclosed from cobwebs or anything that may defile it, and is hung up usually behind the Altar against the wall, with a lamp or two, for the most part, burning before it." 1

SECTION VIII.—Of the Renewal of the Reserved Eucharist.

Among the Greeks the Elements reserved for Sick Communion are consecrated only once a year, viz., on MaundyThursday, the particles being softened, when used, in common wine. The common practice among the Latins has been to change the Host every week. Thus in England, 1138, a Legatine Canon made at Westminster: 3" That the Body of Christ be not reserved above eight days." Later Constitutions provided that it should "be reserved in a clean. and seemly Pyx, and changed every Lord's Day," or "not kept above seven days."5 Nor was this confined to England-e.g. a Council of Bourges, 1031, ordered that "the Body of the Lord be not kept longer than from one Sunday to another;" a Council of Rouen in 1072 "forbade the Viaticum and Holy Water to be kept beyond the eighth day." The ancient Carthusians renewed it every Sunday.s There was a variety of practice, however. "The Carthu

1 Smith's Greek Church, p. 162. See also Allatius De Rec. Græc. Templis, p. 145, et seq.; Par. 1646. 2 Smith, p. 162; Allat. p. 145.

3 Can. ii. Johnson, vol. ii. p. 43. Sim, the Synod of Winchester, 1308; Wilkins, tom. ii. p. 294.

4 So York, 1195, Cap. i.; London, 1200, Cap. ii.; Anon. 1237: in Wilkins, tom. i. pp. 501, 505, 657.

5 Durham, 1217; Worcester, 1240: Wilkins, tom. i. pp. 579, 667. Exeter, 1287, c. iv.; Wilk. tom. ii. p. 132.

6 Can. ii. Labb. tom. ix. col. 865.

7 Can. vi. Labb. tom. ix. col. 1226.

8 Antiq. Stat. L. i. c. 43; Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. L. i. c. iv. Art. xii. Ord. xxv.

sians, according to their revised rites, renewed the Eucharist only twice in the month." A Canon of Tours, given by Regino, and therefore not later than the ninth century, says, "Let it always be changed from one third day to another." In all the Churches of the Diocese of Limoges the rule was that "The Body of the Lord should be renewed at twelve periods in the year.' The earliest Canon extant regulating this matter is, I suppose, one attributed to Isaac III., an Armenian Catholicus of the seventh century, which permits the Eucharist to be reserved "only from Lord's Day to Lord's Day, or from Sacrifice to Sacrifice."4

SECTION IX.-The Eucharist buried at the Consecration of a

Church.

For many centuries it was the rule of the Church of Rome that "three portions of the Lord's Body" should be deposited in or under the slab of the Altar, when a Church was consecrated. The custom was brought into England at an early period; and it so happens that the first traces of it hitherto discovered are found in English Pontificals. In that of Egberts of York, 732-766, a Rubric ordering it is inserted between the office for the consecration of a Church and the prayers said over its several ornaments. It appears to be an addition to the original English Order, but coeval with Egbert's revision of it. The direction with which we are concerned runs thus:" Then he (the Bishop) places within, in the Confession, three portions of the Lord's Body, and three of Incense, and the Relics are enclosed." In another English Pontifical,

1 Martene, De Ant. Monast. Rit. L. ii. c. iv. § xxiv.

2 De Eccl. Disc. L. i. c. lxx. p. 52.

3 Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. L. i. c. v. Art. iii. § ix.

4 Can. ix. Mai, Script. Vet. N. Coll. tom. x. p. 301.

5 Surtees Soc. Publications, vol. xxvii. p. 46; or Martene, De Ant. Eccl. Rit. L. ii. c. xiii. Ord. ii. tom. ii. p. 459.

The tomb of a Martyr or Confessor was often so called. As Altars were often built over such tombs, the place in or under any Altar in which relics were placed came in time to be called Confessio. See Menard, in S. Gregor. Sacram. notes, p. 203, or Ducange in v. In the Roman Pontifical, this is now called Sepulchrum Altaris.

7 Sometimes a square cavity was made in the surface of the Mensa Altaris, in any part of it, in which the relics etc. were placed. This was then closed by a stone exactly fitting it, and carefully cemented, which was called the seal (sigillum) of the Altar. In other instances, the relics were deposited in the upper surface of the substructure of the Altar, and the Mensa itself served for the seal. See Durandus, Ration. L. i. c. vi. n. 34. Three Altar-stones that were thus sealed on the upper surface are known to exist in England; viz., in the Cathedrals of Norwich and S. David's, and the Chapel of S. Madron in Cornwall. In the

of an unknown Bishop, about fifty years later, found in a Monastic Library at Jumiéges, and now in the Public Library at Rouen, the Order of Consecration of a Church is followed by an office for reconciling one that has been polluted, and that by a third quite distinct form, headed "Here begins the Order of the Burial of the Relics in the holy Roman Church."1 Part of this Order is identical with the Rubric above cited from Egbert. From this we learn that the burial of the Eucharist, and even of the Relics, was borrowed from Rome. In the year 816, the Second Council of Cealchythe made the following canon :-" When a Church is built, let it be consecrated by the Bishop of the same Diocese; let water be blessed by him in person, sprinkled, and all performed in order as in the Service Book. Afterwards, let the Eucharist, consecrated by the Bishop in the same Service, be enclosed with other relics in a casket, and kept in the said Basilic. And if he cannot enclose other relics, yet may this profit more than all, because it is the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here we again notice that whereas in the Roman Order, the enclosure of the relics is an integrant part of the Office, the Church of England regarded it as an independent rite, added after the Consecration is supposed to be complete. This difference, which shews that the practice was borrowed from Rome after the English Service Books had been framed, is observable down to the Reformation.*

The Roman Order for the enclosure of the reserved Host is now found only in one of the Corbey MSS. of the Sacramentary of Gregory (the Codex Ratoldi) used by Menard.5 It does not take us above the ninth century at the most, though the foregoing evidence shows that the Church of Rome had adopted the practice long before.

In France, about the close of the ninth century, we find the Roman rite added to the Order of Consecration in the Pontificals of Rheims and Noyons, but without the heading

last the seal is wanting; in the two former it is of a different stone from that of which the slab is made. See a full account of these stones by the Rev. W. H. Sewell of Yaxley, in the Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1875.

1 Martene, u.s., Ord. iii. p. 254.

2 Can. ii. Wilkins, vol. i. p. 169.

3 Pontif. Rom. pp. 358-364; Mechl. 1845.

4 See the Sarum Pontifical, Exeter Use, p. 32.

5 Sacram. Greg. Not. p. 204 :-" Et ponat tres portiones corporis Domini intus et tres incensi."

See the Ordines v. vi., printed by Martene, L. ii. c. xiii. tom. ii. pp. 260-1. This author, n. xi. p. 243, mentions a Pontifical of Beauvais, of

that indicates its source in the English Pontifical preserved at Jumiéges. Returning to England, we find a heading similar to that in the Pontifical of Dunstan, A.D. 961, but the Rubric is varied thus, " If there are relics, let them be placed with honour under the Confession of the Altar, or in a befitting place, with the three particles of the Body of the Lord." A Pontifical of Narbonne,2 which dates from the tenth century, directs the Bishop to "take three portions of the Lord's Body and enclose them in a casket with three grains of incense," and a paper inserted with the Ten Commandments, and the first chapters of the four Gospels (any names of the Faithful living or departed being added, if desired); which done, "the relics to be enclosed with all these things in their proper place." A Pontifical of Sens,3 about a century earlier, and one of Lyons, about as much later, than that of Narbonne, have the same Rubric as that of Egbert, but the context does not resemble that of the Roman Ordo, as given by him and others. A later Lyons Pontifical, the MS. of which is not above 500 years old, orders relics to be provided, "or failing relics, let the Bishop place there (in the Altar) the Body of the Lord."5 Durandus,6 who became Bishop of Mende in 1286, speaks of the practice as the recognised alternative in his day:-"Without the relics of saints, or, where they may not be had, without the Body of Christ, the consecration of a fixed Altar is not effected." In our own country, Lyndwood,? more than a century and a half later, says, "Although relics are not of the substance of the consecration of an Altar, yet when there are no relics, some are wont to put there the Lord's Body, and some doctors say that this ought to be done, even though there are relics. And although this might be said to be true in reference to the consecration of a Church, yet I do not think that it is true at the consecration of an Altar; to wit, that the Lord's Body be buried in the Altar instead of relics, though the common opinion makes for the contrary."

the end of the tenth century, one of Saltzburg of the eleventh, another of Rheims of the twelfth, and another of Noyons of the thirteenth, as all containing the same order; but he does not print from them, or give the words.

1 Martene, u.s. Ord. iv. p. 257.

2 Ibid. Ord. vii. p. 268.

3 Ibid. p. 272 ad calc. Ord. ix.

4 lbid. Ord. ix. p. 270.

5 Ibid. p. 243.

6 Ration. L. i. c. vii. n. 23. An order for it occurs in his Pontifical, of which Martene knew a Ms. copy of the fifteenth century. L. ii. c. xiii.

7 Lib. iii. tit. 26; Loco Reliquiarum, p. 249.

Lyndwood himself evidently disapproved of the practice altogether; for he adds,-" Another reason is that the Body of Christ is the food of the soul. . . . Also because it ought not to be reserved except for the benefit of the sick. And it ought not to be applied to any other use than that for which it was instituted; for it ought to be eaten."

...

Incidental notices of the actual observance of the old Roman rite occur in ancient writings. For example, Benedict VIII., A.D. 1012, authorising the canonization of Simeon the Hermit, says, "If he thus shine with miracles, . build a Church, place him in it, near whom ye ask to have an Altar consecrated;-in which Altar let the relics of ancient saints be buried with the most holy Body of our Lord Jesus Christ." Leo IX., A.D. 1048, not having any relics at hand, when he was consecrating a Church, " gave part of a Corporal and the Eucharist." 2 In an account of the Dedication of a Church by Urban II., in 1095, we are told that “in the Altar of the Lord was placed the ineffable Sacrament of the Body of Christ with the pledges of these Saints, etc." 3 We read also of an old casket, found in the Altar of a dilapidated Church, containing relics, and that "among the said relics was laid up the Body of the Lord." 4

There is reason to think that the practice was dropped by the Church of Rome before it became extinct elsewhere. Cardinal Hostiensis, A.D. 1262, who was adverse to it, tells us that he had consulted Innocent IV. (from 1243 to 1254) upon the subject; and that he, having taken counsel with some men of eminence, signified his disapproval of the practice. Hostiensis is followed by Guido de Baipho, A.D. 1283, commonly known as "the Archdeacon," by Nicolaus Tudeschus (Panormitanus) 1428, and John Torquemadas 1439. Their argument is, that "the Body of Christ is the food of the soul, which ought not to be kept, except for the use of the sick and the refreshment of souls."

1 Ep. Bened. Papæ ; Acta S. O. B. Sæc. vi. P. i. p. 168.

2 Nic. Tudesch. De Consecr. Fccl. vel. Alt. c. i. Ad hæc; super iii. Decr. fol. 176 b. Lugd. 1503.

3 Auctor Anon. de Dedic. Eccl. Majoris-Monasterii (Marmoutier) printed in Oeuvres Posth. de Mabillon et Ruinart, tom. iii. p. 389; Par. 1724. Sim. Annal. Bened. L. lxix. c. xxxv. tom. v. p. 364. See Glaber Rodolphus Hist. L. v. c. i. in Hist. Franc. Scriptores, tom. iv. p. 54.

4 Exod. Cisterc. Ord. Dist. iii. c. xxiii. Biblioth. PP. Cist. tom. i. p. 116. Bonof. 1660.

5 Summa Aurea, L. iii. De Consecr. Eccl. § 3, Placuit, fol. 225, Lugd. 1538.

6 Rosarium, Comm. in Grat. Decr. P. ii. (iii.) de Consecr. Dist. i. fol. 389; Ven. 1601.

7 De Consecr. Eccl. v. Alt. c. i. Ad hæc; super iii. Decr. fol. 176 b. 8 In Grat. Comm. P. iii. Dist. i. c. Placuit; tom. iv. p. 20; Ven. 1573.