of Canterbury. "Ad honorem Dei omnipotentis, et B. Mariæ virginis, et beatorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, et domini papæ Cœlestini, et S. Romanæ ecclesiæ, necnon ecclesiæ tibi commissæ, tradimus tibi pallium de corpore Petri sumptum, plenitudinem scil. pontificalis officii; ut utaris eo infra ecclesiam tuam certis diebus, qui exprimuntur in privilegiis ab apostolica sede concessis." 18

ROYAL AND EPISCOPAL RECEPTIONS.

THE next Order, edited in this volume, is that which was appointed to be used upon the occasion of solemnly receiving either at a city, or cathedral, or abbey, any sovereign, legate, cardinal, or bishop. The custom of the clergy of the place, at which such a personage

was to arrive, to go forth in procession to meet him, and to conduct him to the church, is of very high antiquity, as may be seen by many accounts of it, to be found in the Acta Sanctorum, or in the collection of lives by Surius and again, the well known reference made by S. Gregory Nazianzen to the reception of S. Athanasius, after his return from exile, or the procession with which S. Chrysostom met Epiphanius, in the succeeding century.19

And, as of bishops, so also we find, in later times, many examples of legates, received with the due solemnities: I quote the words of Matthew Paris, relating the arrival of the legate Otho, whose constitutions afterwards published are so famous, and of such high authority. "Occurrerunt ei episcopi et clerici famosi usque ad littus:-rex autem ei usque ad confinium maris occurrit; et inclinato ad genua ejus capite, usque ad interiora regni deduxit officiose. Et adventantes episcopi, cum abbatibus, et aliis ecclesiarum prælatis, eum cum omni honore et reverentia, cum processionibus et campanarum classico, receperunt.'

19 Sozomen. Hist. Ecc. lib. 8. cap. xiv. "Eum ingredientem Joannes occursu cleri totius honoravit." A mark of respect, of which, in this particular case, the bishop afterwards shewed himself scarcely worthy. I would add this illustration also from the life of Cæsar Arelatensis: "Ubi autem percrebuit hominem Dei reverti, jamque eum urbi propinquare, omnes utriusque sexus cum crucibus et cereis ei processere obviam, psallentes, et ingressum

"20

ejus opperientes." Apud Surium. Aug. xxvij.

20 Hist. Angl. p. 371. A. D. 1237. This is not the place for me to enter upon the history, and functions, and dignity, of the legates of the church of Rome; I shall merely remind the reader that the canonists make three distinctions of legates: viz. (to adopt the words of Van Espen) "Legati a latere vocantur legati cardinales: quia assumuntur de latere papæ.-Legati missi sunt,

I would give the following early example in the English church, of the reception of a bishop: the Historia Eliensis, speaking of S. Wulstan, says: "qualis denique vir iste apud Deum semper extiterit, circa vitæ finem evidenter apparuit, quodam enim tempore contigit eum hanc ecclesiam orationis causa visitare, cui fratres loci processionaliter cum magna ut decuit reverentia occurrerunt, cumque jam in ecclesiam fuisset deductus, et in capite processionis episcopali more baculo pastorali staret innixus; subito, etc."" Nor does the reader probably forget the account given us by Bede, of Ethelbert's reception of S. Augustine in the open air, for fear of some magical influence: "at illi non dæmonica, sed divina virtute, præditi veniebant, crucem pro vexillo ferentes argenteam, et imaginem Domini Salvatoris in tabula depictam."

pay

From about the twelfth century it was usual to receive all bishops, on their visitations and progresses through their dioceses, with ringing of bells: and there are frequent entries in ancient parish records of ments on that account. A foreign canon gives a just reason for this observance. "Mandamus, et statuimus, quod quotiescunque episcopi per civitates suas, et diœceses transierint, rectores, seu clerici ecclesiarum, qui sciverint, eos per suas parochias transire,

qui mittuntur ad aliquam provinciam, sed non sunt cardinales: et hujus generis esse solent hodierni nuntii, et internuntii, apud reges et principes, tanquam legati pontificis residentes.-Legati nati vocantur, qui dignitati suæ ecclesiasticæ officium et munus legati apostolici annexum habent." Jus.

Eccles. Pars 1. tit. xxi. The whole title should be consulted: and Thomassin, de Benef. II. lib. 1.52.

21 Script. XV. tom. 3. p. 506. 22 Hist. Eccles. lib. 1. cap. 25. Compare the end of the same chapter.

campanas pulsent, seu pulsari faciant, ita quod populus audire possit et exire, et genua flectere ad benedictionem suscipiendam."23 I must refer the reader to the appendix to Dugdale's history of S. Paul's cathedral, for an "Ordo ad recipiendum episcopum,” according to the use of that church, but he does not state at what date.

There are several notices in the chronicles of royal receptions: I extract one only; the place was S. Alban's, in the time of Richard II. "Finitis vesperis cum processione solemni obviam regi processum est ab abbate et conventu ad occidentale ostium monasterii, acceptusque est honorifice cum pulsationibus campanorum, cantuque tam debito quam devoto.” 25 These royal visits were not always so acceptable, it would seem, as they ought to have been: the same author tells us soon after; "Dum hæc aguntur, rex Angliæ et regina cum suis Boemiis abbathias regni circuunt visitando, quibus tanto tristior fuerit eorum adventus, quanto gravior, quia et accesserunt in excessivo numero, et non offerre sed auferre venerunt.'

"26

But I must not omit one of the latest examples which we have, before the reformation, after which

23 Concil. Raven. Can. 6. A.D. 1314.

And

24 P. 238. edit. 1658. compare for a reception of an abbot of S. Albans, "processionaliter," Matt. Paris. Vitæ abbatum. p. 1051.

25 Walsingham. Hist. Angl. p. 274. A curious circumstance regarding queen Philippa at Durham

is related by R. de Graystanes; Anglia Sacra, tom. 1. p. 760.

26 Ibid. p. 302. In this “ruinous" progress, the abbey of Bury is especially mentioned as having suffered the severe infliction of a ten days' visit; at an expense, besides other losses, of 800 marks. The historian does not tell us what processions took place, on the occasion of the royal departure.

period the ancient religious ceremonies on such occasions were, of course, no longer observed. In the summer of 1541, Henry VIII. kept his progress, and a contemporary account has been preserved of his entry into Lincoln. We are concerned only with one part of the ceremony, at his approach to the cathedral. "Item, the bushoppe of lyncolne wth all thole Queere and crosse were readye, and stodde in the mynster alonge on bothe sydes the bodye of the churche, gyvinge attend'unce, and when his grace was alyghtid at the weste ende of the mynster, where were ordenyd and spred as well carpett as stooles wth quyssheons of clothe of golde, for the kyng's hyghnes, wheron was a crucyfyx laid, and one other on the queenes grace's stoole. Item, aftre his grace was kneelid downe the busshoppe came forthe of the churche and gaue the crucyfyx to the kinge to kysse, and then to the queene, and then censyd them, hys myter beinge on hys heade, and thus proceaded they into the churche, the kinge and queenes grace goinge vndre the Canape to the Sacrement, where they made theyre prayers, thole queere synginge melodyouslye Te Deum, and aftre this don, his grace went strayght to his lodginge.""

RECONCILIATION OF A CHURCH.

WE come now to the Form which was used at the Reconciliation of a Church or Churchyard: which was

27 Archæologia, vol. 23. p.338. Communicated by Sir F. Madden: who observes, as giving a further interest to this instance; "the queen's guilt (Catharine Howard) it will be remembered, with Thomas Culpeper, was established by

VOL. III.

evidence of the fatal night she passed at Lincoln." Compare also the very interesting account of a reception of Henry VI. at Bury S. Edmund's, from a register of that abbey also printed in the Archæol. vol. 15. p. 66.

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