prove to us the evils to which the system | four-and-twenty hours. At cock-crowing, had given rise. or the NOCTURNALS: this service was per

more time in their devotions; but they | On their entry into their order these alms

were not permitted to go into voluntary austerities without leave from the abbot. They were not to talk in the refectory at meals, but hearken to the Scriptures read to them at that time. The septimarians, so called from their weekly offices of readers, waiters, cooks, etc., were to dine by themselves after the rest. Those who were absent about business had the same hours of prayer prescribed, though not the same length of devotion. Those sent abroad, and expected to return at night, were forbidden to eat till they came home; but this canon was sometimes waived.

men gave their beads to be consecrated, and then swore to sacredly observe all the secrets of the monastery.

The monk's service of the canonical hours originally consisted of eight divisions, four for night and four for day, but in the Saxon times they were reduced to seven, to follow Psalm_cxix., verse 164"Seven times a day I praise thee," and partly perhaps to reduce the labour. At matins were said the Paternoster, Ave Maria, Credo, the Invitatorum of the day and its psalms. On double and semidouble feasts nine psalms with their antiphons and verses, with as many lessons and eight responses. Lauds consisted of a hymn, Te Deum, the psalms of the day, the Capitulum, hymn, canticles, and Benedictus with its antiphon. Prime, thirds, sixths, and nones had all their special differences. The choral regulations of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, who compiled of the choral service, became generally used in English cathedrals, so that the Bishop of Salisbury claimed the privilege of acting as precentor to the college of bishops whenever the Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated divine service.

In the case of monks there were many modes resorted to to evade the rules. The language of signs was adopted, and a perfect system of the motions of the hands was as thoroughly systematized in convents as among our modern deaf and dumb. A horizontal wave of the hand indicated a fish; a movement of the finger and thumb, like turning over a leaf, read-a general rubric with all necessary details ing, etc.

On

From the laws of Worcester, Lincoln, and Gloucester, we gather that certain existing evils are implied by its being forbidden to monks to return to the refectory from the dormitory to drink and gossip. No woman was to be introduced into the The rules of Sarum required all clerks, infirmary without special license from the without exception, to wear black copes sub-prior. Immoderate potations were during the whole year, except on double forbidden there, proving that they some- feasts, when there were processions. times did take place in that locality. No the vigil of Easter, when the "Gloria in brother was allowed, unless in presence Excelsis" burst forth, the clerks, after of his officer, to eat elsewhere when he making their genuflexions, threw off their had once dined or supped in the refectory. black copes, and appeared in white surAny brother who had a double pittance of plices. The same custom also prevailed food was allowed to sell or give it away at the vigil of Pentecost. At all single without license from the sub-prior. There feasts from Easter to Michaelmas surwas always to be reading at meals, and no plices were worn in choir and at all hours. speaking but in a low voice, or in Latin; The regulations of the choir were always and on fish days no extra refreshments to wear silk copes and red habits on both were to be taken out of the refectory ex-feasts of the Holy Cross, and at every cept by the old or sick who had obtained feast of a martyr, also at all single feasts dispensation. Monks being forbidden by during Lent, and on the Passion and Palm the Council of Vienna (Clement V.) to Sunday. hunt or hawk, no monk was to keep hunting dogs or birds of prey. All fine and showy dresses were prohibited as a scandal to religion, and unbecoming men of one brotherhood.

It is probable, from various allusions in monkish chronicles, that the elder and superannuated monks were troublesome in convents, dictatorial, finding fault, and frequently missing "the daily sacrifice." For such misconduct the offender had to receive his pardon in chapter, prostrate before the dean and canons; and if guilty of disobedience and rebellion the offender was sometimes degraded from his state, and compelled to stand in humiliating penance at the door of the choir behind the dean, or in the choir amongst the low

The almsmen of a convent were generally old servants of the monastery or disabled servants. There was usually a prior appointed to overlook these almsmen, who wore black gowns and hoods, given them every year on the Feast of St. John the Baptist. They carried large rosaries, and had the arms of the monastery broidered on their right shoulders.est of the boys.

For extreme faults a keeper was appointed to the prisoner, and whenever the bell rung for divine service the culprit had to remain prostrate at the gate of the convent, and bow to every one who passed. As the order left the church the prostration was renewed, and the monks, as they passed their abject brother, said each one, "Lord, have mercy upon you." After various disciplines at several chapters, promise of amendment, and the intercession of his brothers, the offender was at last pardoned. In some cases a monk was sent to board at another convent for a certain term. In the lesser excommunications the offenders had to fast on bread and water purposely defiled, or were kept in church during dinner till the abbot sent the prior to summon them.

The consumption of candles in the old | fences monks were banished from the cathedrals must have kept the wax-chand-dinner-table, sent to coventry, and comlers the most devout of men. In the pelled to publicly prostrate themselves. Sarum rules we find such directions as the following: "Among the duties of the treasurer,' he is to provide on Advent Sunday, both at vespers and matins, and at mass, four wax lights-namely, two above the altar, and two others on the step before the altar. The same on Palm Sunday. All other Sundays of the year, and whenever the choir is regulated and the Invitatorum is said by two, he is to supply two others; at mass and on all Sundays, four; on Christmas-day, at vespers, and at mass, eight each of a pound at least about the altar; and two before the image of the Blessed Mary. At matins the same, and six besides, on the elevation before the relics and crucifix, and the images there placed; and on the chandelier corona" before the step, five of half a pound at least. Five also are to be placed on the wall behind the desk for reading the lessons. The same is to be observed in all double feasts, with processions, from Whitsuntide to the nativity of the Blessed Mary."

Among the amusements of the monks we must include the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses, when there was much noisy buffoonery and inconsistent horseplay, and they acted those religious plays which presented vivid pictures of biblical events to the eyes of the poor. In these representations the monks' pent-up minds found, as it were, a secret way to the drama.

The punishment of monks guilty of any offence was severe, but if the whole convent was committing the same crime, as often happened, they escaped all harm. At the weekly chapter an accuser would And now, after these brief scenes of often stand up and say, "I accuse Broth- monkish life, let us end with the last scene er — of The accused monk of all that ends" this strange eventful made no answer, but at once left his seat history." At the death of a monk the and advanced to the abbot, bowing. The news of the event was at once forwarded accuser then simply stated his charge. If to all neighbouring religious houses, of guilty, the accused man at once asked whatever order. The body was at once pardon, and confessed his fault. If not washed and clothed in the hood, cloak, guilty, he replied that he did not remem- and cowl, and carried to the church, the ber to have done what Brother af- bearers singing psalms, and the bell tollfirmed. The accuser bowed and returned ing. There was no great delay about the to his seat, and then called the witnesses. funeral ceremonies; he was usually buried A reprimanded monk stood in a central the day he died, after mass and before place in the room, called "the judgment," dinner. If it was found difficult to keep and when the final sentence was pro- up the psalm-singing, the body was buried nounced he bowed and retired to his seat. almost immediately. If condemned to receive discipline, the The ceremonies observed during the culprit was sometimes stripped to the day's vigil were numerous. A cross was waist, seated in a chair, and then beaten placed at the head of the corpse, and with a rod. During the discipline the lighted tapers stood at the head and feet; monks hung down their heads. A hand-on the breast was a chalice of wax or silbell, according to Du Cange, was sometimes hung behind the delinquent. For other offences convicted monks had to carry large lanterns for penance, stood with arms expanded in the form of the cross, or sat down on chairs in the middle of the choir, waiked barefoot to the cross, repeated penitential psalms, and joined in penitentiary processions. For other of

ver; the body was anointed on a stone table in the infirmary, and it was censed by the deacon. The abbot absolved the corpse after a sermon to the chapter, silence was preserved in the cloister, the grave and corpse were sprinkled with holy water, and a written absolution was placed on the breast of the deceased.

And so passed away the poor brother,

Whatever were the vices of those great armies of celibates who fought the battle of the Church during the Middle Ages, whatever their ambition, voluptuousness, gluttony, and avarice, their greatest enemy must own that we owe them much for the learning they hoarded, the education they encouraged, the charity they displayed, and the buildings they reared. Who can stand up and say that the builders of such churches as York Minster and Salisbury Cathedral were mere half-the garth is where he lies, waiting for his transmuted pagans? Was there no worship of the soul in the men who reared that pile and raised those towers - who hollowed those cloisters and carved those altars?

From The Spectator.

MISQUOTATION.

We have read somewhere of a young preacher who, after he had delivered an eloquent sermon before a learned assembly, was beckoned aside by one of the "fathers," who thus addressed him: "Mr. So-and-So, twice in your sermon today you quoted Scripture, and oddly enough, in both instances, you misquoted. You didn't alter the sense of the passages, to be sure, but you used a sort of off-hand translation of your own, instead of the grand old Authorized Version.' Take an old man's advice, and never do so again. When you quote from a writer, whether sacred or profane, always be at the pains to verify the quotation." Misquotation is not, however, limited to energetic pulpiteers. In the hurry of modern requirements daily newspapers, magazines, and reviews-it has become rather an unfashionable thing to be tied by rule, and authors of repute, whose example may prove infectious, clearly do not condescend to verify, and often fall into dangerous forms of paraphrase. Emerson says that "there are great ways of borrowing," and that "next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it;" but he cannot have meant to give any sanction for a gypsy-like disfiguration in the process of transference. It is because things have come to a very bad pass indeed, even among those who should know better and show better, that we venture to give a few samples, culled from a very long list of recent offences against all ethics of quota

tion.

Mrs. Oliphant, usually a very conscientious writer, is far from blameless in this matter. For example, one of the most unlucky of recent citations ran right through all the forms her pleasant" Rose in June" enjoyed, and is now elevated even to the glory of stereotype in the cheap edition. It is one of Tennyson's finest lines. To dying eyes —

The casement slowly grows a glimmering

square;

57

too bright and good

For common nature's daily food, which is hardly allowable, even though the copulative "and" be consciously used for "or," and " "" common for "human.” Furniture as food is surely a refinement far beyond the native simplicity of Wordsworth! Over and above her unquestioned facility of misquotation, however, this lady has an almost unique power of theological perversion. When she is in the very act of proving God's oneness of presence through all events and through all time, she makes Mr. Tennyson come to her support, as if he spoke thus of

One divine event, For which the whole creation waits, instead of

That far-off, divine event, To which the whole creation moves, moving, and not waiting, being the idea she herself wishes to enforce. Worse still

if indeed worse could be is a case which has just come under our eye as we but to the dying eyes of Mr. Damerel, the, write, where she credits the laureate with rector, on his own statement,

The casement slowly grows, a glittering square, which really it could not well help being, and, moreover, the cruel comma after "grows" makes the line still more grotesque. The late Canon Kingsley was not seldom an offender in similar wise. His memory was good, but not verbally exact; and latterly, at all events, he was indis

The hands which come from darkness
Moulding men,

instead of

And out of darkness came the hands

That reach through nature, moulding men.

Her rendering is expressive of a sentiment the very reverse of the laureate's and of her own, and would favour a theolo