on the back of each hand lies a quatrefoil.-Between the two forefingers and the thumb of the right hand, the king holds a sceptre with the cross made of copper gilt. Between the two forefingers and the thumb of his left hand, he holds the rod or sceptre with the dove: -the stalk is divided into two equal parts, by a knob or fillet, and at its bottom is a flat ferule.-On the head of the corpse, which lies within a recess hollowed out of the stone coffin, is an open crown or fillet of tin, or laten, charged on its upper edge with trefoils, and gilt with gold. On a careful inspection of the fingers, of both hands, no ring could be discovered: but we may conjecture, that on the shrinking of the fingers, the royal ring had slipped off, and buried itself in some part of the robes, none of which were disturbed in order to search for it.-The cloth was not removed from the feet, so it is uncertain whether they have sandals on them or not.23"

23 Archæologia. Vol. 3. p. 376, &c. These volumes are not common, and I need scarcely apologize for the length of the above extract. People will of course form their own judgment as to the propriety of opening any tombs or graves whatever if the occasion justifies such an undertaking, and if it be conducted with all possible solemnity and care, not with irreverent remarks, and from idle curiosity alone, I must confess that it would appear to rest upon reasonable grounds. One thing is very certain; that prying into graves is not of modern date, but that we have many ancient exam

ples. And from mere curiosity also; as in the case of the prior of S. Augustine's, in the time of Henry III.; who opened the tomb of S. Augustine, to satisfy himself that the body actually was there. Thorn. Chron. Script. x. Tom. 2. p. 1876.

In the Anglia Sacra, Tom. 2. p. 227, is printed the official account, drawn up at the time, of the opening of the supposed tomb of archbishop Dunstan, at Canterbury, in the year 1508. There were found some bones; and an inscription, which though much relied on by archbishop Warham, in proof of the identity of the re

TH

CHAPTER V.

HE Services, in this volume, after the Order of Coronation, are those which relate to the ordination of priests, deacons, subdeacons, &c., and to the consecration of bishops. We have here a subject of enquiry before us, so vast, and branching out into so many collaterate questions, that I almost fear to enter upon it at all, in the necessarily confined limits within which I must keep myself. I shall propose therefore to do little more, than lay before the reader some collections from the English councils, and canonists, much in the same way as in the Dissertation in the first volume, bearing upon and illustrating the rubrics and ceremonies of the services themselves. Other matters, of no little interest, will be found discussed in the notes attached to those services.

I shall scarcely even approach the question, how far and in what sense we are justified in considering

The

mains, seems to me to cast very considerable additional doubt upon the fact, and somewhat more than a suspicion of collusion. inscription was "Hic requiescit sanctus Dunstanus archiepiscopus:" and it was argued that the tomb had never been disturbed. A correspondence followed between the archbishop and the monks of Glastonbury, who had claimed, for some centuries, possession of the body: and the reader

will be repaid by a careful perusal of the whole matter. It is an unhappy exposure of ignorance and superstition on the part of the country-people, of something very like deceit in the monks, and partiality in the archbishop: who settled the dispute by declaring, if the convent of Glastonbury would not withdraw their claim, that he would excommunicate all persons who should presume to visit their pretended relics.

"Orders" to be a sacrament: in some sense it is undeniable that it must be so regarded, as also are confirmation, and matrimony by the homilies of the church of England. We cannot receive the Ordinal of our Church, without acknowledging the truth of this, and echoing the words of S. Ambrose, "Homo imponit manum, Deus largitur gratiam: sacerdos imponit supplicem dexteram, Deus benedicit potenti dextera."

25 There is no lack of evidence that before the 16th century, the English church regarded orders in the same light; and I am not now concerned with the proof, if any such were needed, that she also ranked this rite too highly, and not according to the more just measure and rule of the Holy Scriptures, and the primitive ages. Thus, a synod of Durham, in the year 1220, in its canon, "de numero sacramentorum" first specifies five, and then continues: "Duo vero sequentia sunt ordo et conjugium, nec omnium licet quorundam, nec per eorum virtutem peccata dimittuntur, sed in eorum altero, scilicet in conjugio, peccatum fornicationis vitatur; in altero, scilicet ordine, quorundam virtutes au

24Ordo" when we meet with the term in the Fathers, may be understood in at least two ways, according to the context: either for the sacred rite itself of ordination, or for the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and various degrees of the ministers of the Church, which would seem to be its original and most strict interpretation. In this last sense, S. Augustine declares: "Ordo est parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens dispositio." De civit. Dei. Lib. xix. 13. 1. In the former we are to understand the La

tin Ordinatio, or Sacra Ordinatio, and the Greek xpoτovia Οι χειροθεσία. The definitions of which by the canonists may be reduced to this: "Ritus sacer seu sacramentum, quo spiritualis potastas confertur sacramenta conficiendi et ministrandi, cæteraque ecclesiastica munia pro jure obeundi."

25 De dignitate sacerdotali. cap. 5. see also his treatise, de Spiritu Sancto. lib. 1. cap. 5. 1.; S. Chrysostom, de sacerdotio, lib. 3. § 4 ; and S. Augustine, contr. Parmen. lib. 2. cap. 13.

gentur." 26 Again, the famous synod of Exeter, in the year 1287; "Est et septimum sacramentum, sc. ordo; nam, sicut in veteri testamento sacrificia offerebantur, non per quoscunque, sed vocatos a Domino; ita nec in novo, nisi per ipsos, qui ad hoc sacros susceperint ordines, ecclesiastica sacramenta poterunt dispensari."27 So also Lyndwood in his gloss upon a constitution of archbishop Peckham: "Ordo. Istud est unum de duobus sequentibus [i: e: sacramentis] et sextum in numero, alias connumeratis præcedentibus: et nota quod Ordo, prout est sacramentum ecclesiæ ut hic, est signaculum quoddam, per quod spiritualis potestas traditur ordinato. Secundum Thomam istud sacramentum

"28

pertinet ad generationem spiritualem." And once more, the "Pupilla Oculi:" which commences with the enumeration of seven sacraments, of which the fifth is "Ordo:" and presently has several chapters "de sacramento Ordinis." 29

26 Wilkins. Concilia Tom. 1. p. 574.

Ibid Tom. 2. 130. cf. p. p. 295. a canon of a synod at Winchester, A. D. 1308. and cardinal Pole, Reform. Angl. fol. 9. b. edit. Aldus. 1562.

28 Lib. 1. Tit. 7. Ignorantia. verb. Ordo.

29 The "Pupilla oculi," once a very famous book, is now exceedingly rare, and but little known; nor do I believe that it has been printed since the reformation. As this is the first time that I have quoted it, the reader will not object, probably, to seeing its full title: from which he will be able to form some judgment as to its con

:

tents; and the value of them, as a record of the practice and opinions of the clergy of the English church, during the middle ages: "Pupilla oculi, omnibus presbyteris præcipue Anglicanis summe necessaria per sapientissimum divini cultus moderatorem, Johannem de Burgo, quondam almæ universitatis Cantabrigien. cancellarium: et sacræ paginæ professorem, necnon ecclesiæ de Colingam rectorem ; compilata anno a natali Dominico, M.ccc.lxxxv. In qua tractatur de septem sacramentorum administratione, de decem præceptis decalogi, et de reliquis ecclesiasticorum officiis, quæ oportet sacerdotem rite institutum non

By

There is not the same ease in arriving at the decision of the English church, before the reformation, as to the number of the various orders. This, in fact, has always been an open question in the western Church: nor, as one might have supposed, did even the council of Trent venture to set it at rest among the doctors of the Roman communion. Her canon is: "Si quis dixerit, præter sacerdotium non esse in ecclesia catholica alios ordines et majores et minores, per quos velut per gradus quosdam in sacerdotium tendatur, anathema sit." 30 which decision, if decision it may be called, it is really wonderful to perceive how carefully the via media has been taken, so as not to condemn the Greek church upon the one hand, nor the old schoolmen on the other; and how the great controversies are carefully not affected; for example, how many and what these "ordines majores et minores" are; whether they are all of Divine institution; whether all are of the nature of a sacrament, and equally so; whether all equally impress a character upon the person ordained; and others of the like kind.3

31

ignorare; jam primum accuratissime castigata, atque tersissime in lucem edita. Impensis honestissimi ac fidelissimi mercatoris Wilhelmi Bretton." Paris. Wolf gang Hopylius. 1510. sm. Folio. Another edition before me, is by Regnault, Paris, 4to. 1514.

I may add that a "Pupilla" is referred to, earlier than this of De Burgo, in a sentence of excommunication settled by a provincial council at York, A.D. 1311. See Wilkins, Conc. Tom. 2. 414. p. Another book of the same kind

was the "Manipulus curatorum :" in which, as the first sentence declares, "pernecessaria officia eorum quibus animarum cura commissa est breviter pertractantur." This was frequently printed by both Wynkyn de Worde and Pynson. It treats of the sacraments, the articles of the faith, and the ten commandments. I shall have occasion to refer to it, as we proceed.

30 Sess. XXIII. Can. 2. Comp. Cap. II. of the same session.

31 The "Catechismus ad parochos" however, does not speak