NION OF administrations, by commencing with the special Collect, COMMU Epistle, and Gospel, and then passing to the Communion THE SICK. Office at the address to the communicants, Ye that do truly and earnestly repent you, &c.' If the Visitation Service is used at the same time, the priest ends that service after the prayer, 'O most merciful God, &c.; and instead of the psalm, proceeds to the collect of the Communion of the Sick, and thence to the address to the communicants, as before1. Communion. The rubric which points to spiritual communion, as Spiritual a topic of consolation to one who is unable to partake of the material elements2, is taken from the ancient office of Extreme Unction: Deinde communicetur infirmus nisi prius communicatus fuerit: et nisi de vomitu vel alia irreverentia probabiliter timeatur: in quo casu dicat sacerdos infirmo :-Frater, in hoc casu sufficit tibi vera fides, et bona voluntas; tantum crede, et manducasti 3. 6 This rubric does not imply that the actual participation of this sacrament is a matter of indifference. Like the other sacrament of baptism, it must be received, where it may be had. But a faithful Christian need not fear separation from the love of Christ, if either by reason of the extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the curate, or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other just impediment,' he do not receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood in his last extremity. 1 The following was the shortened service ordered in 1549"The Anthem: Remember not, Lord, &c. Lord, have mercy upon us, &c. Our Father, &c. Let us pray. O Lord, look down from heaven, &c. With the first part of the Exhortation and all other things unto the Psalm. And if the sick desire to be anointed, then shall the priest use the appointed prayer without any Psalm.' 2 See this subject treated, and suitable devotions provided, by bishop Jeremy Taylor (Worthy Communicant, ch. vii. § 3, Works, VIII. pp. 238 sq.) and bishop Wilson (Instructions on the Lord's Supper, Append. 'Concerning Spiritual Communion,' Works, II. pp. 130 sqq.) Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. p. 89. BURIAL OF The Mediæval Offices. SECT. V. The Order for the Burial of the Dead. The ancient Church treated the bodies of the dead with a care suited to the belief of the resurrection of the body. Hence instead of consuming them by fire', the Christians committed them to the grave, as early as the third or second century2. The funeral was also accompanied with prayer, and hymns of praise and thanksgiving 3. The mediæval services included the Commendation1, between the death and the burial, the Burials itself, the Mass for the Dead, and the Office for the Dead", together with Trentals, and Anniversary Commemorations. 1 See Bingham, Ant. XXIII. 2, § 4. 2 Guericke, Antiq. p. 275. Veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus:' Minuc. Octavius, p. 65. By the 4th century we find the кожiáтαι, fossarii, fossores, sextons, as a distinct office among the clerici: Guericke, p. 277. Embalming was much used before burial, Bingham, ib. $5. See also burial customs fully described, ibid. ch. 3. 3 Guericke, p. 276. A form of prayer is given in Const. Apost. VIII. 41. The custom of the AngloSaxon Church is described in the Penitential of Archbishop Theodore (688) cap. cxv. 'Mos est apud Romanam ecclesiam monachos vel homines religiosos defunctos in ecclesiam portare, et cum chrismate ungere pectora, ibique missas pro eis celebrare; deinde cum cantatione ad sepulturas, et cum positi fuerint in sepulcro, tunc pro eis faciunt orationes, deinde humo vel petra operiuntur corpora.' Mansi XII 33. 4 'Sequatur commendatio animarum, et dicatur in camera vel in aula sine nota juxta corpus, et omnia subsequenter similiter usque ad processionem ad hominem mor tuum suscipiendum.' Maskell, 5 Inhumatio Defuncti, ibid. pp. 114 sqq. 6 Missa pro Defunctis, called also Requiem, from the beginning of the anthem, or officium, 'Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.' Miss. Sar. fol. cclix. Brev. Sar. Psalt. fol. cvii. 7 Officium pro defunctis, or Vigiliæ mortuorum, or the Dirge, consisted of two parts; the Vespers, or Placebo, so called from the antiphon with which the service commenced,'Placebo Domino in regione vivorum' (Brev. Sar. Psalt. fol. lxii.); and the Matins, also called Dirige from its first antiphon, -'Dirige Domine Deus meus in conspectu tuo viam meam' (ibid. fol. lxiii.) These Offices formed a part of the Prymer: see Maskell, Mon. Rit. II. pp. 110 sqq. 8 Thirty masses said on as many different days. Special collects were inserted in the Office in die tricennali, or in trigintalibus; and also in anniversario depositionis die. "Though the corpse had been buried, the funeral rites were not yet over. All through the month following, Placebo, and Dirige, and THE DEAD. The arrangement of the reformed service has been BURIAL OF much changed at the several revisions of the PrayerBook. In 1549 it was as follows: The Priest meeting the corpse at the church-stile, shall say: or else the priests and clerks shall sing, and so go either into the church, or towards the grave, I am the resurrection, &c. I know that my Redeemer, &c. We brought nothing, &c. When they come at the grave, whiles the corpse is made ready to be laid into the earth, the priest shall say, or else the priest and clerks shall sing, Man that is born of a woman, &c. In the midst of life.....to fall from thee. Then the priest casting earth upon the corpse, shall say, I commend thy soul to God the Father Almighty, and thy body to the ground, earth to earth, &c. Then shall be said or sung, I heard a voice from heaven, &c. Let us pray. We commend into thy hands of mercy, most merciful Father, the soul of this our brother departed, N. And his body we commit to the earth, beseeching thine infinite goodness to give us grace to live in thy fear and love, and to die in thy favour: that when the judgment shall come which thou hast committed to thy well-beloved Son, both this our brother, and we, may be found acceptable in thy sight, and receive that blessing which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce, &c. (as in the last collect.) masses continued to be said in that church, but with more particular solemnity on the third, the seventh, and the thirtieth day, at each of which times a dole of food or money was distributed among the poor.' Rock, Ch. of our Fathers, II. 516. The first English Service. (1549.) BURIAL OF This prayer shall also be added, Almighty God, we give thee hearty thanks for this thy servant, whom thou hast delivered from the miseries of this wretched world, from the body of death and all temptation; and, as we trust, hast brought his soul, which he committed into thy holy hands, into sure consolation and rest: Grant, we beseech thee, that at the day of judgment his soul and all the souls of thy elect, departed out of this life, may with us, and we with them, fully receive thy promises, and be made perfect altogether, through the glorious resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. These psalms with other suffrages following are to be said in the church, either before or after the burial of the corpse. Ps. cxvi. cxxxix. cxlvi. Then shall follow this lesson, 1 Cor. xv. [v. 20 to end.] Lord, have mercy upon us, &c. Our Father, &c. Priest. Enter not, O Lord, into judgment with thy servant. Answer. For in thy sight no living creature shall be justified. Priest. From the gates of hell. Answer. Deliver their souls, O Lord. Priest. I believe to see the goodness of the Lord. Answer. In the land of the living. Priest. O Lord, graciously hear my prayer. Answer. And let my cry come unto thee. Let us pray. O Lord, with whom do live the spirits of them that be dead; and in whom the souls of them that be elected, after they be delivered from the burden of the flesh, be in joy and felicity: Grant unto this thy THE DEAD. servant, that the sins which he committed in this world BURIAL OF be not imputed unto him, but that he, escaping the gates of hell, and pains of eternal darkness, may ever dwell in the region of light, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the place where is no weeping, sorrow, nor heaviness; and when that dreadful day of the general resurrection shall come, make him to rise also with the just and righteous, and receive this body again to glory, then made pure and incorruptible: set him on the right hand of thy Son Jesus Christ, among thy holy and elect, that then he may hear with them these most sweet and comfortable words: Come to me, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom, &c. The Celebration of the Holy Communion when there is a The Commu Ps. xlii. Burial of the Dead1. Collect. O merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesu Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.... (in the words of the last collect) and at the general resurrection in the last day both we and this our brother departed, receiving again our bodies, and rising again in thy most gracious favour, may with all thine elect saints obtain eternal joy. Grant this, &c. The Epistle. 1 Thess. iv. [v. 13 to end.] The Gospel. John vi. [v. 37 to 40.] nion Office at made in 1552. The Service of 1552 proceeded as before to the point Changes where the priest had cast earth upon the corpse, while saying I commend thy soul to God, and thy body to the ground:'-but now, whether this act was considered 1 This was a very ancient, if not a primitive, custom; 'whereby the friends of the departed testified their belief that the Communion of the saints in Christ extended |