v THE LIBRARY OF LITURGIOLOGY tf ECCLESIOLOGY FOR ENGLISH READERS JBcclesiologfcal Essays THE LIBRARY OF LITURGIOLOGY &' ECCLESIOLOGY FOR ENGLISH READERS EDITED BY VERNON STALEY PROVOST OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW, INVERNESS Volume EcclesioloQical Essays BY J. WICKHAM LEGG FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF THE HENRY BRADSHAW LITURGICAL TEXT SOCIETY LONDON ALEXANDER MORING LIMITED THE DE LA MORE PRESS 32 GEORGE STREET, HANOVER SQUARE, W. 1905 BUTLER & TANNER. THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS. FROME, AND LONDON. PREFACE THIS seventh volume of The Library of Liturgiology and Ecclesiology consists of a number of essays from the pen of Dr. J. Wickham Legg, on subjects connected with ecclesiology. The essays originally appeared in various publications between the years A.D. 1895 and 1900 ; and, as they treat of matters of considerable importance, it has been thought well that they should be collected and reprinted in one volume for greater security and readi- ness of reference. I beg to tender my acknowledgments to the Editor of The Church Quarterly Review, The Council of the St. Paul's Ecclesiological Society, and the Editor of The Church Times, for their kind and ready permission to reprint the following essays. I am specially grateful to Dr. Legg for the great trouble he has taken in preparing the work for the press and in supplying the Index, which has been added by the kindness of a Sister of the Com- munity of All Saints. VERNON STALEY. INVERNESS, N.B. June 10, 1905. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I. REVISED AND SHORTENED SERVICES . 3 II. MEDIEVAL CEREMONIAL .... 27 III. ON TWO UNUSUAL FORMS OF LINEN VESTMENTS 49 IV. ON THE THREE WAYS OF CANONICAL ELECTION 59 V. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE TIME IN THE CHRISTIAN LITURGY AT WHICH THE ELEMENTS ARE PREPARED AND SET ON THE HOLY TABLE ... 91 VI. NOTES ON THE MARRIAGE SERVICE IN THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. . 181 VII. THE LAMBETH HEARING: A CRITICISM OF SOME OF THE ARGUMENTS . . 227 IX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE PAGE I. An Early Mediaeval Altar . . . . . -3^ II. High Altar of the Primatial Church at Lyons . . 34 III. The Altar of the Church of St. Paul, Saragossa, in 1903 . 35 IV. Altar from Cceremoniale Parisiense, 1703 ... 36 V. A Chasuble-shaped Surplice, the grey Ames being thrown over the Shoulder of a Canon .... 49 VI. A Chasuble-shaped Surplice, over which is worn the grey Ames, in its Early Form and Use ... 49 VII. Baptism : The Clerk with Lighted Taper wears the Chas- uble-shaped Surplice Blessing the Water : Both Priest and Clerk wear Chasuble-shaped Surplices . 50 VIII. Mass, at the time of Communion : The Clerk with Torch wears the Chasuble-shaped Surplice Visitation of the Sick: The Clerk wears the Chasuble-shaped Surplice 51 IX. Procession in which nearly all wear the Chasuble-shaped Surplice Communion is being given by a Priest in Chasuble-shaped Surplice over which is a Stole . . 52 X. Old Men of the School of Saint Ambrose at Milan Old Man in Cotta Old Man in " Fanon " bearing Obley and Wine Cruet Hood worn over " Fanon " . 52 XI. Old Women of the School of Saint Ambrose at Milan Old Woman in Special Dress Old Woman in " Fanon " bearing Obley and Wine Cruet Veil worn over " Fanon "....... 52 XII. Bishop and two Clerks 55 XIII. Cardinal's Voting Paper Recto. . . . . -7* XIV. Cardinal's Voting Paper Verso. ..... 72 XV. The Mass of Saint Gregory, dated 1501 . . .126 XVI. Ritus Deferendi Oblata, Auzerre, 1738 . . . 140 XVII. Marriage with Veil ....... 193 xi IReviseb anb Sborteneb Services IReviseb anb Shortened Services THE proceedings in both Convocations early in the year 1905 and the publication by Lord Hugh Cecil of a Church Discipline Bill in the House of Commons make it clear that the forces of disorganization are once more about to make a vigorous attack upon the institutions and liturgy of the Church of England. Under these circumstances it may be well to recall some of the attempts, successful and unsuccessful, which have been made of late years upon the integrity and historical character of the Prayer Book. One of the successful attempts, and also one of the most deplorable wrongs inflicted upon us, was the passing of the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act, com- monly known as the Shortened Services Act of 1872. We may notice the same want of liturgical knowledge in Convocation then as now, and the same defiance of pre- cedent. There seems to be abroad a firm belief that all will be well if we are only sufficiently bold to disregard altogether what experience may have taught us. We are to look upon the Prayer Book and the Church of England as vile bodies upon which experiments may be tried. When the Shortened Services Act was passed in 1872 some of us can remember how exultant many of the friends of the Church were. We were told that liturgical expansion and elasticity were gained at last ; " Dearly beloved brethren " was not hereafter to be the only spiritual pabulum which the Church of England had to offer to hungry souls. Our services were now to be bright and hearty, and all would throng to them. The 4 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS wooden age was over ; the golden age had begun. There were some who uttered a word of warning, neglected in the general congratulation ; but even the more cautious did not quite foresee the untoward results that were to follow the passing of the Act. It has not drawn the masses to church. It has discouraged the attendance of the devout laity. It has encouraged idleness and care- lessness ; and, further, it has led directly to the state of liturgical anarchy that we now endure. Of this result we will speak further on, but first of all we propose to examine the lines on which Divine Service is constructed in the Prayer Book, and to compare its unaltered services with those offered to us by the Shortened Services Act. If we look at that part of the preface to the Prayer Book that has the heading " Concerning the Services of the Church," we shall find that the term " Divine Ser- vice " is limited, as it was in the middle ages, to the choir offices, to the recitation of the Breviary or Psalter. The ancient Fathers, it tells us, " so ordered the matter that all the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over every year," and the Psalms were divided into seven portions, so that the whole Psalter was read over once a week. When the Divine Service was rearranged in the sixteenth century, this was the ideal which was before the minds of the compilers of the Book of Common Prayer ; but with two services only in the day, Mattins and Evensong, they did not attempt a weekly, but only a monthly, recitation of the Psalter. All the psalms were to be recited, without exception. Services giving the recitation of psalms in their regular order and the reading of Holy Scripture in a definite course were those which the reformed Church of England aimed at, and in this aim she did but follow in the steps of the earliest Christian practice, which we find set forth by Mgr. Batiffol and Dom Suitbert Baumer in their classical works on the history of the Divine Service. This being the case, let us see how far the authors of REVISED AND SHORTENED SERVICES 5 the Shortened Services Act have kept before them the aim of the Church of England in Divine Service. Instead of three to five psalms at each service, permission is given to recite only one. Instead of two lessons from Holy- Scripture, one from the Old Testament, the other from the New, permission is given to read only one lesson. Instead of the large amount of orderly Scripture reading nearly the whole Bible every year to listen to which it was once the good fortune of those who attended Divine Service daily, the amount of Psalter and Scripture lesson is reduced to the smallest, and there is no guarantee that the reading shall be continuous, so that the greatest part of the Bible shall be read through in the year, as designed in the Prayer Book. To-day, the one lesson may be from the Old Testament ; to-morrow, or the rest of the week, the lesson may be from the New ; there may be one lesson only at Mattins, and two at Evensong ; the course and amount of Bible reading are at " the discretion of the minister." There can be no denying that the Scriptural elements, which are the really important parts of Divine Service, have been very greatly reduced, and thereby has been injured the good reputation of the Church of England as the great com- munion of Christendom that feeds her children largely and daily with the pure Word of God. To speak the truth, the Prayer Book conception of the Divine Service was destroyed in 1872. Now, nothing would have been easier, if the draftsmen of the Act had really wished it, than to retain the old liturgical lines of Divine Service. They could have done this, and yet shortened the service quite as much as, if not more than, they have done. (We argue for the moment on the supposition, which we should not willingly accept, that it is desirable to shorten the daily service at all.) They could have lopped off the beginning and ending of the service, and yet left us the essence and Scripture part. To show this : at Mattins they could have begun with Venite and continued thence, in the regular order of the Prayer Book, to the Lord's Prayer after the Creed. At Evensong they could have begun with the psalms of the day, and so on through the lessons of the same, ending with the Lord's Prayer. This would have preserved the marrow of the service, all the psalms and hymns, canticles and lessons, would have been retained ; and privately by those who wished, there could have been prefixed the preparatory part of the service, confession, Lord's Prayer, and versicles ; and at the end could have been added the prayers, or freces, as they are called, collects, and intercessions. If this be thought too bald, the introductory Lord's Prayer and versicles might have been retained, and the prayers with the three collects added at the end without greatly increasing the length of time to be spent in prayer. But the shortened services scheme shows small acquaint- ance with liturgical studies. Nowhere can better evi- dence of this be found than in this one point, viz. the direction to omit Kyrie and the Lord's Prayer * in the prayers (or lesser litany, as it is called) after the Creed. This omission jars upon any one with a sense of antiquity. The Lord's Prayer is the summing up of all the prayers and praises just offered in the psalms and Scripture lessons and canticles. To take it away from this place is to destroy the very kernel of the Divine Service. The Lord's Prayer comes at this place in all rites, ancient and modern. Cardinal Tommasi was one of the first ritualists, if not the very first, that the world has seen since the Reformation, and in his scheme for shortened 1 Doubtless this omission was suggested by one who objected to repeti- ms. But a real authority, the late Bishop of Oxford, writing in favour of some variation in services, expresses himself as follows : I would not sur- render one of the repetitions of the Lord's Prayer, for I never met a man who, being asked whether in one, two, or three repetitions, he was really oout that he had put his heart into every clause, and had asked with spirit and understanding for everything that, when he really sets to work to is wrapped up in those clauses, could reply that he had done so, could dispense with a supplementary repetition." (W. Stubbs notation ttaW, edited by E. E. Holmes, Longmans, ,904, p. \ 7 ) REVISED AND SHORTENED SERVICES 7 services to be used in country churches and the oratories of lay confraternities, the Lord's Prayer was preserved at the end of the service in the place of the collects. 1 His plan was to remove from the Divine Service all that was not taken from Holy Scripture ; all anthems, responds, metrical hymns, even the collects, in place of which last was to be recited the Lord's Prayer. The Divine Ser- vice would consist of the psalms, hymns, 2 and lessons, and nothing more. The course of the psalms was to be strictly adhered to, proper psalms being recited only on Christmas Day, the Epiphany, Easter Day, and the like. And he gives a scheme of three Scripture lessons based upon the old course of Isaiah in Advent and Genesis in Septuagesima, with the outline of which we are all familiar. There can be no doubt that Cardinal Tommasi's plan of shortened services is infinitely better than that which appears in the schedule of the Act of 1872. It is wholly Biblical ; it could not be objected to by a Puritan, and yet nothing could be more primitive and patristic. It is very much to be wished that some Scriptural plan of this sort had been before the draftsmen of the Act of 1872. Another ancient feature has disappeared from the scheme of the Shortened Services of 1872 : the invitatory psalm to the services of the day, Venite, which is found all over the West in the ancient rites ; its position as the first psalm of Mattins was kept in the Continental reforms of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. 3 Then as to Te Deum^ which in very early times appears to have been 1 Tbomasii Opera, Romae, 1754, ed. Vezzosi, vii. 62 : "De privato ecclesi- asticorum officiorum Breviario extra chorum." As to the Lord's Prayer see p. 67. The whole tract is well worth attention. It has Iately(i904) been edited under the auspices of the Church Historical Society, and published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 2 By hymns we mean Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, as in the Prayer Book, or the Scripture canticles at Lauds in the breviaries. 3 See a paper on " Some local Reforms of the Divine Service attempted on the Continent in the Sixteenth Century" in Transactions oj the St. Paul's Eccle- siological Society, 1901, vol. v. p. 17. 8 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS said every day at Mattins, neither it nor its substitute need ever be said on a weekday at all. Some authority may be quoted for its omission from Septuagesima to Easter, on Ember days, vigils, and other fasts, but its omission on festivals is very unusual. Except by the favour of " the officiating minister " we need not have * t was often reserved without 1 eht (See Trart, /, A M u End,",.- S *'y- .904, P. ,,5. D C lL;*?llJ r ^{"' ""T PLATH I] [Tojacep. 31 AN EAKLY MEDIAEVAL ALTAR, ShowinC the pleating of the frontal, the chalice, corporal, paten, and corporas case on the altar ; but no gradin, lights, or cross. (British Museum . 50 BAPTISM : THE CLERK WITH LIGHTED TAPER WEARS THE CHASUBLE-SHAPED SURPLICE. N.B. The ample Surplice of the priest. BLESSING OF WATER : BOTH PRIEST AND CLERK WEAR CHASUBLE-SHAPED SURPLICES. From Liber Catecliuiiwrinii iuxta ritnm sancte Komane ecclesie, Venetiis, apud Petrum Bosellum. 1555. PLATE VIII] [To face p. 51 MASS, AT TIME OF COMMUNION : THE CLERK WITH TORCH WEARS THE CHASUBLE-SHAPED SURPLICE. N.B. No gradin, ample linen cloth, no cross on altar, only two lights. VISITATION OF THE SICK : THE CLERK WEARS THE CHASUBLE-SHAPED SURPLICE. Fi om Liber Catechuminonim iuxta ritum sancte Kotnane ecclcsie, Venetiis, apud Petruni Bosellum, 1555. UNUSUAL LINEN VESTMENTS 51 the forms for the administration of those sacraments not reserved to the bishop. These particular books came from the north of Italy, and were printed in the latter half of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. The first I may name is Liber Catechuminorum iuxta ritum sancte Romane ecclesie^ Venetiis, apud Petrum Bosellum, 1555. From this book I give four drawings. (See Plates VII. and VIII.). There are also more of the same chasuble-shaped surplices to be found in a book with the title : Ordo Ba-ptizandi et alia sacramenta administrandi, Venetiis, apud luntas, 1592. The priest wears this chasuble- shaped surplice at baptism (p. 7), the priest and clerks wear it at the giving of communion (p. 26), at the burial of the dead (p. 78), at the blessing of holy water (p. 139), in procession at Candlemas (p. 188), and here the surplice with sleeves is worn by the fellow of a clerk who wears the chasuble-shaped surplice ; and further on in the book the priest wears the latter while performing the ceremony of exorcism (p. 253). A third book in which I have found drawings of this chasuble-shaped surplice is the Rituale Ecclesiae Veronen- sis, Veronae, typis Bartholomaei Merli a Donnis, 1609. I give two reproductions of the woodcuts in this book. They may be found on Plate IX. This chasuble-shaped surplice may be seen very distinctly in one of the modern mosaics, probably of the seventeenth century, at St. Mark's, Venice. It is in a mosaic over one of the doorways on the right side of the church facing the piazza. The employment of colour makes it certain that we have to do with a linen, not a silken, vestment. I have no doubt that if a full search could be made, a number of other instances would be found. Perhaps enough has been said to establish the existence of a linen vestment shaped like a chasuble in ages and places far removed from each other. 52 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS There is another form of linen vestment, if vestment it may be called, to which I would ask attention, not so much for its own sake, but because it is part of a ceremony which is an interesting survival of an ancient custom. The vestment is used by the old men who bring up bread and wine at the time of the offertory in the metropolitan church at Milan. These old men, and with them are old women, are called the school of St. Ambrose, a sort of guild, of the existence of which we are assured as early as the twelfth century. 1 A writer on the Ambrosian Liturgy thus speaks of the guild and its duties : The women wear a dress of black wool, with a girdle and a white linen cap upon which they have a veil of black silk, and they cover the neck with another linen cloth in pleats. At the offertory the two old men on duty wear over the cotta a pointed hood which ends in a tassel, and the two old women a piece of fine black silk over the white veil on their heads ; both men and women have a large white linen cloth covering their shoulders, arms, and hands, and coming down to their knees. This linen cloth they call a fanon. With that each one holds three obleys and a silver cruet containing wine, for they must not touch the offerings with naked hands, but only with the fanon. 2 The fanon is I metre 20 cm. broad and 2 metres 60 cm. long : in English measures, about four feet by nine and a half. The upper of the long sides is sewn to its fellow, but so as to leave a space through which the head of the wearer can be passed, a sort of chasuble being thus produced, full behind, an appearance which disappears when the hands are joined in front, and the linen thus put on the stretch. (See the illustrations on Plates X. and XI.) Mazzuchelli points out that the word fanon is used in this sense in Ordo Romanus II. The people are said at the offertory to bring their oblations, that is, bread and wine, with white fanons, first the men, then the 1 Marco Magistretti, Beroldus, Mediolani, 1894, p. 52. 2 Osservazioni di Pietro Mazzuchelli, Milano, 1828, p. 21. PLATE IX] [To face p. 52 PROCESSION IN WHICH NEARLY ALL WEAR THE CHASUBLE- SHAPED SURPLICE. COMMUNION IS BEING GIVEN BY A PRIEST IN CHASUBLE-SHAPED SURPLICE OVER WHICH IS A STOLE. N.B. Clerk following with a cup of wine and water. Communion apparently given from a square box. No candles on altar, but on brackets at ends. From Ritnak Ecclfsiae Veronensis, Veronae, 1609. <-. 5 3- s E- W O CQ O O E u OJ w DC O ^ w s Q J O CO O PQ CO O O E O CO w rn w ^ O ^ Q J O UNUSUAL LINEN VESTMENTS 53 women, last of all the priests and deacons ; but these only offer bread. 1 Other instances of this use of the word may be found in Georgi. 2 In the offerings, then, of these old men and old women it would seem that we have a survival of the ancient offertory, when the whole congregation offered in kind instead of in money. It would not seem, however, that these hosts and wine are now at Milan consecrated at the mass at which they are offered, which was the ancient practice, 3 but the obleys being provided by the sacristy of the Metropolitan Church return thither, and they are afterwards used at other masses ; while the wine, although also provided by the sacristy like the obleys, the Fecchioni have to their own use. To return for a moment to the first of these vestments that have been spoken of. There can be hardly a doubt that an ornament made of linen and shaped like a chasuble has been often worn as a surplice, and, in fact, that it is nothing more than a surplice. The want of orphreys in the linen ornament proves nothing, for, if we may trust the monuments of the middle ages that have come down to us, a large proportion of the mediaeval chasubles, especially in England, had no orphreys whatever * ; even as the English stoles and maniples had no crosses. The 1 J. Mabillon, Museum Italicum, Lut. Paris. 1724, t. ii. p. 46. 2 Dominici Georgii, de Liturgia Romani Pontificis, Romae, 1731, t. i. p. 268. See also Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, lib. IV. cap. xxx. 27. Neapoli, 1859. p. 224. 3 Mazzuchelli (op. cit. p. 22) gives the following extract from an inedited manuscript written by Bescapd de ritibus ecclesiae Mediolanensis in the Ambrosian library at Milan (p. 30). " Sunt decem vetuli et totidem vetulae, omnes ab archiepiscopo delecti, qui in coniugio non sint. Hi a veteribus nostris, ut ex Beroldo apparet, appellati sunt schola sancti Ambrosii, et quibusdam sacris officiis intersunt. Horum mares duo et totidem feminae honesto et antique vestitu ad gradus presbyterii (Beroldus ait mares intrare chorum) veniunt fanonibus hoc est mappis quibusdam candidis apte involuti, et manibus panno ipso opertis, dextera oblatas, sinistra amulas cum vino tenent : quae sacerdos illuc ab altari cum ministris descendens suscipit." 4 The absence of orphreys in the chasuble was very noticeable in the exhibition of mediaeval pictures that was got together by the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House in the summer of 1896. 54 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS question then arises how far does a priest really obey the Ornaments' rubric if in celebrating the Eucharist he wear one of these linen chasuble-shaped surplices ? The intention may be thought to be good ; but to come to the hard letter of the law, is he really obeying the rubric ? Is he doing nothing more than wearing a second surplice ? This wearing of a second surplice as a eucharistic vestment I actually saw one summer in Scotland at a chapel which I think is in the diocese of St. Andrews. Apparently the celebrant wore an albe, over which was a green stole ; and then over the stole and albe was a surplice with sleeves. The surplice was not very long ; it only reached the knee, and the ends of the stole were plainly visible below the hem of the surplice. Many of the wearers of linen chasubles would doubtless be much amused at this array of the good priest ; but I doubt if they themselves do not very much the same thing when they wear linen chasubles. A linen chasuble is only known to the Ornaments' rubric as a possible vestment for the first four weeks of Lent. The wearing of a linen chasuble at all times of the Chris- tian year cannot be called an observance of the Ornaments' rubric, if I may be allowed an opinion. This linen ornament is only another surplice. 1 It would almost seem that the material, and not the shape, determines the name of the vestment. The dal- matic or tunicle when made of linen becomes the sur- plice ; and the surplice, that is, a linen vestment, fitting close to the body and coming down to the heels, with 1 Mr. Micklethwaite has reminded me of a circumstance in connexion with this paper that some thirty or forty years ago a chasuble-shaped surplice was in use in some parts of England. This recalled to my recollection that on St. Peter's day, 1861, I had been at a service in St. Mary's, Crown Street, then a curious old building that had been used for the services of the Greek Orthodox community in London in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the late Mr. Chambers, the incumbent, wore over his cassock this round chasuble-shaped surplice, and over that a black stole. He was assisted by the late Dr. Littledale as gospeller, who wore a surplice, with a stole deaconwise ; and as epistler by one who I think was Mr. Vaux. PLATE XII] [To face p. 55 BISHOP AND TWO CLERKS. From a mosaic in San Vitale at Ravenna, set up^ about A.D. 547. UNUSUAL LINEN VESTMENTS 55 loose sleeves may be seen in the mosaics of Ravenna. It is very likely that the name, surplice (superpelliceum) is not to be found much before the twelfth century ; but the thing is to be found as early as any distinctive vest- ment, as early as the chasuble. Plate XII. (see opposite) is one of the earliest representations known of the Christian Vestments. It is a reproduction of a mosaic at Ravenna, set up in the reign of the Emperor Justinian, about A.D. 547. We see the bishop with a cross in his hand, attended by two clerks, one of whom carries a textus, the other a cen- ser : both are tonsured. The bishop wears three primitive vestments : the linen under-vestment, corresponding to our surplice ; the coloured over-vestment, which is the chasuble ; and the pall, a white scarf thrown over the shoulders. (a) The linen vestment is common to the bishop and his clerks : it comes down to the feet, and the sleeves are not tight to the arm, but wide, approaching those of the more modern surplice. It will be seen that though the word surplice is comparatively modern, yet the vestment itself is as old as any. (b) The chasuble (in Latin paenula) dark in colour, is, in this mosaic and others at Ravenna, of an olive green. It has no bands or orphreys, the absence of which may be noticed in England as late as the end of the middle ages. (c) The pall, the special episcopal ornament, is white and fringed and marked with a cross. It is still given to all bishops in the East, though now limited in the West to those bishops to whom it is sent from Rome, usually metropolitans. It is to the bishop what in later times the stole was to the priest. There is no appearance of the stole, the maniple, the amice, or the dalmatic, in this mosaic. It confirms the tradition as to the two chief vestments that the Roman Mass book retains to this day : celebrans semper utitur Planeta super Albam. 1 This also finds expression in the 56 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS rubric of Edward VI. 's prayer book, which directs an alb with a vestment or cope. There is no resemblance in the chasuble and pall to any of the Levitical vestments. The most ingenious per- son can hardly detect any likeness between these. But the white under-vestment has a certain kinship to the linen under-vestment of the High Priest, " tunica linea," and the best authorities say that this vestment was made with tight sleeves, not with the wide open sleeves which the mosaics at Ravenna show. The tightening of the sleeves of the linen under-vestment and the adoption of a girdle may have been part of the deliberate Judaising of some of the Christian vestments which we know took place in the early middle ages, mainly in the West. 1 The wide sleeves may be seen in frescoes and mosaics much later than those at Ravenna : for example, in S. Maria Antiqua at Rome, in the apse of St. Agnes outside the walls, and elsewhere. I wish to take this opportunity of thanking my friend, the Rev. Achille Ratti, Doctor of the Ambrosian Library at Milan, for the assistance which he has given me in all that relates in this paper to the School of St. Ambrose in the Metropolitan Church. I fear that my questions must often have been troublesome to him, but he has nevertheless always been most ready to give me informa- tion upon all matters, and especially upon the history and character of the fanon. I am very grateful to him for his help. And I am also under considerable obliga- tions to the Master of the Ceremonies in the Metropolitan Church, Dr. Marco Magistretti, for the trouble which he took in arranging for the photography connected with the representations of the members of the School of St. Ambrose. 1 See the Introduction to J. Wickham Legg and W. H. St. John Hope, Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbur>; Westminster, Constable, 1902. n the {Three Wa^s of Canonical Election n the Ubree Wa^s of Canonical Election WHEN I became a fellow of the Royal College of Physi- cians some thirty years ago, one part of the ceremonial of that ancient foundation which particularly struck me was the method used in electing the President. Every year on Palm Sunday (in modern times it is the day after) the fellows were to meet in college, and there proceed to the election of a president. The election is still on this wise. First of all, the Registrar reads out the bye-law which governs the election of a president. There is no formal proposal or nomination ; but each fellow present writes down on a balloting paper the name of the fellow for whom he votes ; if the fellow add more than one name, the vote is null and void. The voting papers are then collected in a large silver vessel by the Junior Censor, and brought to the Senior Censor, and by him read out in the presence of the college. If two-thirds of the fellows present agree upon a particular name, the bearer of that name is forthwith elected president. But if not, the two names having the highest number of votes are then again balloted for : in this latter case a simple majority of those present, the more part, determines the election. 1 One would not expect that anything connected with " the Science and Faculty of Physic," as it is called in the Act of King Henry VIII. establishing the College of Physicians, 2 would lead one into the study of the 1 The Charter, Bye-laivs, and Regulations of the Royal College of Physicians of London, 1892. Chap. IV. Bye-law xxix. p. 43. * Ot>. cit. p. ii. 69 60 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS Canon Law. But it is so. This election of the Presi- dent is an example of an election -per scrutinium, one of the methods of election spoken of in the Constitution Quia propter, 1 which occurs among the decretals of Gregory IX. and is indeed a little older than this, for it was published by Innocent III. in the fourth Council of the Lateran, held in the year 1215. It may be convenient to add here a translation of Quia propter : The title is : on making elections by scrutiny or compromise. " Whereas, by reason of the diverse forms of election which some endeavour to find out, many hindrances are caused and great dangers ensue to churches widowed of their pastors ; we decree that when an election is to be held, all shall there be who ought, wish, and are able conveniently to be present. Then that three members of the college shall be chosen to take the votes of all with diligence, secretly, and one by one : and if the votes have been written down, they shall immediately publish the result, no further hindrance being thrown in the way by appeal : when the votes have been compared, he is to be accounted chosen, in whom all, or the more part, or the more discreet part (pars sanior) of the chapter agree. " Or, indeed, the power of electing may be given to a few fit persons ; who in the place of all may provide a pastor for the widowed church. " An election made in any other way is null and void, unless perchance all agree by a sort of divine inspiration, and then the election is perfectly valid. " Those who shall attempt to make an election that is not in agreement with these three forms shall be deprived of their power of election for this turn." To describe these three ways of election more at length ; and taking the last spoken of in Quia propter to be men- tioned first, there are i. quasi per inspirationem : when the electors are all agreed to elect the same person and there is not a single 1 See Appendix I. WAYS OF CANONICAL ELECTION 61 dissident. There is nothing miraculous claimed for this. It is a mere method of recording the fact that all are of one mind. ii. 'per scrutinium : when the votes are given either by word of mouth or in writing to persons appointed to receive them ; " omnes vel maior et sanior pars," is the rule given in Quia pro-pier ; but now the consent of two-thirds of those present is in many cases necessary. iii. 'per compromissum : when the society or college agrees to depute the election to a small committee, such committee to elect without reference back to the original body. There is a quaint account in English of the methods of election in the Additions to the Rule of St. Saviour and St. Bridget belonging to the nuns of Syon, a religious house in the parish of Isleworth. 1 As it well expresses the general plan of these elections, I will venture to give it below. Whan the day of the eleccion is com and dyuyne seruyse that belongeth to them for to performe afore none is ended, the brethren immediatly serial synge masse of the holygost, solemply in stede of hygh masse in solempne aray as the tyme asketh. Whiche ended, the chauntres with another suster whom sche wyl take to her, schal begynne solempnly the ympn Veni Creator Spiritus, whiche schal be songe to the ende quyer to quyer, of the sustres. Whiche doon, the priores in a lowe voyce with note schal say thys versicle Emitte spiritum tuum and thes two collectes Deus qui corda and Acciones nostras with Per Christum dominum nostrum Amen bothe under one. 2 And whyles the sustres synge thys, the confessour with hys brethren schal say the same with the seyd versicle and collectes. 1 British Museum, Arundel MS. No. 146. fo. 30, Chapter xii. It has been edited by G. J. Aungier, History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery, Westminster, 1840, p. 287. There is also a very full account of the three methods in Rituale Cisterciense, Lib. viii. Capp. i. and ii. Lirinae, 1892, p. 434, a reprint of the editions of 1 688 and 1720. See also Martene, de antiquis monachorum ritibus, liber v. cap. 5. * Both under one : i.e. both under one termination per dominum, etc. 62 ECCLESIOLOGICAL ESSAYS Thys done the brethren schal begynne ther sexte and the sustres chapter belle ronge forthewithe, they schal spedely come to the crates * of the eleccion where as they may speke with the brethren and seculers togyder. To the whiche crates also schal come the general con- fessor with two of hys brethren confessours to the sustres suche as he wyl take with hym for to assiste and be there than as witnesses only, and not for to haue any voyce in the elec- cion. And whan al be come, the xxiiii u article of the bulle of pope Martyn the fyfte schal be redde whiche begynneth thus, Obeuntibus vero vel cedentibus, et cetera. And this article also is to be red amonge the sustres the day before euery eleccion as it is expressed in the xi te chapter of these addicions. After thys, the constitucions of the thre formes of eleccion schal be declared in englysch by some wele lerned manne in the lawe of holy chirchebeyng with oute at the seyd crates and a notary with hym. That is to say the wey of the holy- goste the way of scrutyny and the wey of compromys. And yf it plese the sustres to accepte and preferre the wey of the holygoste, than the priores or any other suster may say thus " What seme ye of such a suster N." expressynge her proper name and syr name. " Me semethe that sche is an able per- sone to thys office." And yf al answer it plesethe them for to haue her abbes or geue any other answer hauynge the strengthe of ful consente, thys wey is welle spedde yf so be there were no trety nor no menes made before to chese her abbes so that sche be of sufficient age and born in wedlok. Nor it hurteth not thys eleccion thof sche so chosen assente not to her nominacion. But yf any other do it or if any trety or compacte be made tofore for to chese her, than is this wey al to squatte. 2 If the wey of the holygoste preuayle, the pryores schal say in thys wyse, In nomine patris, et filii, et spiritus sancti. Amen. /, suster N. JV. priores of this monastery of saynt saviour, and of sayntes mary the virgyn and 1 It will be noted that the nuns of Syon did not speak of their grille but of their grate. Dr Johnson speaks of the nuns' grate at Paris. "Mrs. Thrale got into a convent of English nuns, and I talked with her through the grate." (James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, London, 1900. Vol. ii. p. 143. A letter dated Oct. 22. 1775.) 8 Squatte : Scat, broken, ruined, Cornw. (J. O. Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, London, 1872, seventh edition, s.