The twenty-eighth Article condemns the reservation of the Sacrament.

1662.

The rubric now directed that the service was to begin with the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel provided, afterwards proceeding with "Ye that do truly," in the usual service.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE BURIAL SERVICE.

§ 121. History of the Service.-The Sarum funeral rites began with the Commendatio Animarum (Mask. M.R. i. 130) the commendation of the soul of the departed to God, said at the house, and afterwards a mass for him in church, the burden of each being that his sins committed during life might be pardoned. The burial service more properly so called was opened by a prayer that God would not enter into judgment with the departed for sins done in his lifetime. While the choir was chanting sentences in response to this, the priest went round the corpse censing it. Another long prayer for pardon followed, and further responses of the choir, this time expressed in the name of the departed himself, calling most piteously on God for pardon; during which the priest again went round the corpse censing it with a thurible. This was done a second time, the language increasing in intensity, but the burden of it remaining the same. There were thus censing circuits of the body three different times, and after the last time holy water was sprinkled on it.

The corpse was then carried to the grave, the choir chanting passages, the tenor of which was a prayer for the eternal requiem of the departed, that angels might

lead him to Paradise, martyrs receive him into their company, and conduct him to the New Jerusalem. At the grave the priest offered more prayers for pardon, and for a place of peace and refreshment for the deceased. The grave was then uncovered and further prayers offered, that the soul might not be oppressed by the darkness and shadow of death. Further prayers followed for the benediction and sanctification of the grave, which was then sprinkled with holy water and censed. Before the corpse was let down the priest placed above its breast an absolution, and pronounced one likewise. Again the grave was sprinkled when the corpse was deposited, the undertaker placed earth over it in the form of a cross, censed and sprinkled it. While the corpse was being entirely covered with earth, chanting was continued, and the priest said, “I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the name," etc. More prayers and more chanting, but always of the same burden and only varying in terms, concluded the service, the final words being, "May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful dead, by the mercy of God, rest in peace (requiescant in pace). Amen."

This service was elaborate and in no small degree artistic, but prolix, depressing, and unscriptural.

The Burial Service and the Mass were the two great services embodying prayer for the dead. But a difference is observable. In the Mass the faithful dead are commended to God. In the Burial Service the departed is regarded as having gone before his Judge with all his sins upon him, needing forgiveness, justification, and absolution.

1549. No service in the house of the dead was provided. The corpse was met "at the church stile" by the priest, and conducted either into the church or towards the grave, the priest saying, or the priests and clerks singing, the three sentences, "I am the Resurrection," "I know that my Redeemer," "We brought nothing." The third was now first added. At the grave the commendation of the soul of the departed and prayers for its safety were still prominent features of the service; but they were much more mingled with thanksgiving and with prayers for the living.

After the service at the grave there followed that which was to be performed in church, and this might be either before the interment or after, at discretion. It consisted of Psalms cxvi., cxxxix., cxlvi., the Lesson 1 Cor. xv. 20 to the end, the Kyrie, Lord's Prayer, suffrages, and a concluding prayer. Annexed were Collect, Epistle, and Gospel for Holy Communion, without any direction as to whether it was to be celebrated before the interment or after. The service of 1549 was thus greatly abbreviated from its predecessor, but what prayers were retained were mainly founded on the old Latin ones. It was much simplified also: censing and sprinkling were omitted, as well as absolution of the dead. In short, the only ritual act was the priest's casting of earth upon the corpse after its descent.

In 1552 the service was again abbreviated. The priest conducted the corpse from the church stile "either unto the church or towards the grave." The Lesson was appointed after the interment, and after that were prayers as before; but there were no

psalms and no suffrages, nor any direction to enter the church. It would seem then that the whole service was expected to be held at the grave, without making this obligatory. The Communion was dropped. All petitions for the departed were omitted, and in their place came thanksgivings for him. Instead of the priest casting earth upon the body, that act was performed by bystanders. The service remained unaltered in 1559 and 1604.

In 1662 a rubric was prefixed, directing the office not to be used for any who have died unbaptized, or excommunicate, or have laid violent hands upon themselves. In connection with this obligation as to

the unbaptized see § 106.

The corpse was to be met "at the entrance of the churchyard," instead of at the church stile, and to be conducted as before, either into the church or towards the grave. If into the church, then Psalm xxxix. or Psalm xc., or both, and the Lesson from 1 Cor. xv., were to be read, the rubric being now precise. This part of the service was, therefore, contingent on the corpse being taken into the church, which was optional. There had been no psalms since 1552, and those now selected were not the ones of 1549.

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sure

In the committal of the body, the passage and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life," was modified by the insertion of "the" before resurrection."

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In "Almighty God with Whom do live," "the souls of them that be elected," which had stood since 1549, were altered to "the souls of the faithful." In the same prayer, "that we, with this our brother and all