netur.

De his qui usurpant sibi, quod soli debeant episcopos ordinare, placuit ut nullus hoc sibi præsumat, nisi assumptis secum aliis septem episcopis: si tamen non potuerit septem, infra tres non audeat ordinare."

I extract the following form of citation of a bishop to consecrate and to assist, in the year 1293. "Venerabili in Christo patri, domino. R.23 Dei gratia London. episcopo, devoti sui H. permissione divina prior ecclesiæ Christi Cant. et ejusdem loci capitulum, salutem, et ad sinceræ devotionis obsequia se paratos. Quanto majorem devotionem erga nos et ecclesiam nostram Cantuar. geritis, quam frequenti experimento didicimus, tanto vobis honorem facere satagimus præ cæteris ampliorem. Quia igitur discretus vir magister W. de Marchia Bathon. electus, die dominica in festo Pentecostes prox. ventur. in ecclesia nostra Cantuar. prout scitis, Deo propitio, est in episcopum consecrandus, paternitati vestræ supplicamus, quatenus dictis die et loco, omni excusatione remota, tantæ solennitate personaliter interesse velitis, munus consecrationis electo propriis manibus impensur. Quid autem Quid autem super his facere decreverit sanctitas vestra, per bajulum præsentium nobis literatorie significetis. Dat. etc."

24

As to the times, that is, the periods of the year, at which general ordinations were to take place, both Baronius 25 and Bellarmine 26 have attempted to prove that the "Jejunia quatuor temporum" as fixed for that purpose, are to be attributed to the days and the authority of the apostles. But there is no evidence whatever, of any weight, in favour of this opinion, whilst on the other hand, there is much in contradiction to it. Not only is there no mention of this fact in the earlier fathers, but there is very ancient authority that Gelasius was the first who limited the seasons of general ordination to certain times of the year. Micrologus says; "Gelasius papa constituit, ut ordinationes presbyterorum, et diaconorum nonnisi certis temporibus fiant." "7 So also Rabanus Maurus; "Sacras ordinationes quatuor temporum diebus opor

vent. Because it appears from a
commission granted by them, a
few
years afterwards, in the case of
the bishop elect of Bangor, to be
consecrated elsewhere, that they
claimed the privilege of having
all bishops of the province con-
secrated in their cathedral. See,
ibid, p. 287.

"The dean and chapter of Canterbury," says bishop Gibson, "claim it as an ancient right of that church, that every bishop of the province is to be consecrated in it, or the archbishop to receive from them a license to consecrate elsewhere. And tho' between the years 1235 and 1300 that point was controverted with the chapter, it ended in their

favours, and in the further confirmation of the privilege.” "In Cranmer's register, among the fees due to the archbishop and his officers, for confirmation and consecration, we find the following entry. Memorand. that no bishop may be consecrated without the church of Canterbury, but by the special license of the dean and chapter under their chapter seal, the fee whereof is 26s. 8d."" Codex Juris Ecc. p. 111. note rr.

25 An. Ivij. n. ccix.

There

tere fieri, decreta Gelasii papæ testantur." 28 is no doubt, however, that the appropriation of certain times of the year, to the solemnities of general ordinations, is of an antiquity reaching, if not to apostolical, at least to almost primitive times. And there are so many reasons, which will easily occur to the reader, why a rule so general and ancient should be if possible observed, that it cannot but be a subject of sincere gratification to every member of the church of England to observe, not only that it is distinctly repeated by the canons of 1604, but that, during the last few years, the practice of our bishops has been (more exactly, than at one period) in accordance with that rule.

But, to return to my more immediate purpose, I proceed to extract some orders upon the point, previous to the sixteenth century. First, the 99th of the oftenquoted excerpts of archbishop Egbert: "Presbytero

extant that Amalarius was mistaken and that the custom in the primitive ages, at Rome as in all other parts of the Catholic Church, was to ordain at any time of the year, when it was judged desirable or necessary. Mabillon in his Museum Italicum, tom. 2. p. 103, supposes that the frequent custom, certainly observed by some popes, to ordain only in the winter, was on account of the great heat of the summer, and the numerous duties to be fulfilled in the autumn: but Catalani derides this idea. Comment. in Pontif. tom. 1. p. 47.

rum vero et diaconorum in quatuor temporum sabbatis, scilicet, ut dum hæc ordinatio coram populo agitur, sub omnium testificatione electorum ordinatorumque opinio discutiatur." 29 Again, of a council at Winchester, soon after the Conquest, in which canon the "certain times" must be interpreted of the Ember days. "4. Quod ordinationes certis temporibus fiant." so And lastly, the Pupilla oculi. "Celebrari possunt sacri ordines generaliter in sabbatis quatuor temporum, et in sabbato ante dominicam in passione et in sabbato sancto paschæ in aliis autem temporibus nemini licet sacros ordines conferre nisi soli papæ: et si aliis temporibus conferantur ordinati recipiunt ordinem; sed non executionem ordinis. Minores autem ordines licite conferuntur ab episcopis in diebus dominicis et in aliis diebus solennibus, aut festis aliquibus, sed non valde multis, ut non videatur generalem ordinationem facere.'

31

Having, in a previous dissertation, (Vol. 1. p. cci.) remarked upon the strict rules which were anciently enforced, that all the sacraments should be freely administered, without charge or demand of money, I shall refer the reader to that place, and to the places from the Concilia which are there cited.32 These

29 Wilkins. Conc. tom. 1. p. 107. And the same archbishop in his penitential: "Hi sunt legitimi quatuor temporum dies, qui legitime observari debent: id est, Kal. Martii, prima hebdomada; et Kal. Junii, secunda hebdomada; et Kal. Septembr. tertia hebdomada; et Kal. Decembr. hebdomada proxima ante natale Christi."

Thorpe. Ancient Laws, vol. 2. p. 235.

30 Wilkins. Concil. tom. 1. p. 365.

31 Lib. vij. cap. 3.

32 An ancient political song of the time of Henry III., after complaining of some vices and immoralities of the clergy, proceeds:

"Donum Dei non donatur,

enactments, as regarded the conferring of Holy Orders, were grounded (as it is expressly stated in the 43rd of the excerpts of Egbert) upon the very ancient (so called) apostolical canon. "If any bishop, presbyter or deacon, shall obtain possession of that dignity by money, let both him and the person who ordained him be deposed, and also altogether cut off from communion, as Simon Magus was." And here I would remark, having just cited these excerptions, that the 45th adopts an African canon, "Episcopus absque concilio presbyterorum clericos non ordinet.”

Few injunctions were more frequently repeated, or of earlier date, than that every bishop should confine himself, in the discharge of his duties, strictly to his own diocese: I shall now extract a few orders relating to this, which bear upon the power of celebrating ordinations. The second canon of the council of Hertford (Herutford) in the year 673, is general in its object, but important from its early date: "Ut nullus episcoporum parochiam alterius invadat, sed contentus sit gubernatione creditæ sibi plebis."" Archbishop Egbert inserts in his excerpts part of a canon (the 16th) of the council of Nice, to the same effect: but I pass on to the 11th canon of the synod of Chal

Nisi gratis conferatur ;
Quod qui vendit vel mercatur,
Lepra Syri vulneratur,

quem sic ambit ambitus,
ydolorum servitus,

templo Sancti Spiritus, Non compaginatur."

MS. Cotton. Jul. D. vij. fol. 133.
Printed in the publications of the
Camden Society.

33 Wilkins. Conc. tom. 1. p. 43. But compare a canon, said to be of a council in Ireland, two hundred years before this: "Episcopus quilibet, qui de sua in alteram progreditur parochiam, nec ordinare præsumat, nisi permissionem acceperit ab eo, qui in suo principatu est." Ibid. p. 3.