my said monethes mynde fall in Lent, or upon a fysshe day, then I will that the said xxiiij. peces of fleshe be altered unto saltfyche or stokfyshe, unwatered and unsodeyn, and that every piece of beef or moton, saltfyshe or stokfysh, be well in value of a peny or a peny at the leest; and that noo dyner be purveyed for at hom but for my household and kynnysfolks: and I will that my knyll be rongyn at my monethes mynde after the guyse of London. Also I will that myn executrice doo assemble upon the said day of moneths mynde xij. of the porest menys children of the foresaid parisshe, and after the masse is ended and other observances, the said childern to be ordered about my grave, and there knelyng, to say for my soule and all Christen soules, 'De profundis,' as many of them as can, and the residue to say a Pater noster, and an Ave oonly; to the which xij. childern I will be geven xiij.d., that is to meane, to that childe that beginneth De profundis' and saith the preces, ij.d. and to everyche of the other j.d.” See his Chron. new edit., Pref. pp. 4, 6.1

In the Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in the city of London, 17 and 19 Edw. IV. (Palmer and Clerk), are the following articles: "Pa to Sir I. Philips for keepyng the morrow mass at 6 o'clock upon feryall days, each quarter, V.S. To the par. priest to remember in the pulpit the soul of R. Bliet, who gave vj.s. viij.d. to the church works, ij.d."

In Nichols's Collection of Churchwardens' Accounts, 1797, Accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, p. 10, we read: "Item, at the monyth mynde of Lady Elizabeth Countess of Oxford, for four tapers, viij.d." Under the year 1531 is, "Item, for mette for the theff that stalle the pyx, iiij.d." And, in 1532, "Item, received for iiij. torches of the black guard, viij.d." On these occasions the word "mind" signified remembrance; and the expression a "month's mind," a "year's mind," &c., meant that on that day, month, or year after the party's decease, some solemn service for the good of his soul should be celebrated.

In Ireland, according to Sir H. Piers, 1682, "after the day

"I shulde speake nothing, in the mean season, of the costly feastes and bankettes that are commonly made unto the priestes (whiche come to suche doinges from all partes, as ravens do to a deade carcase) in their buryinges, moneths mindes and yeares myndes." Veron's Huntyng of Purgatory, 1561, f. 36.

of interment of a great personage, they count four weeks; and that day four weeks, all priests and friars, and all gentry far and near, are invited to a great feast (usually termed the Month's Mind); the preparation to this feast are masses, said in all parts of the house at once, for the soul of the departed: if the room be large, you shall have three or four priests together celebrating in the several corners thereof; the masses done, they proceed to their feastings; and, after all, every priest and friar is discharged with his largess."

We read in Fabyan's Chronicle that "in 1439 died Sir Roberde Chichely, grocer, and twice mayor of London, the which wylled in his testament that upon his Mynde Day a good and competent dyner should be ordayned to xxiiij.c. pore men, and that of housholders of the citee, yf they myght be founde. And over that was xx. pounde destributed among them, which was to every man two-pence."

ON BOWING TOWARDS THE ALTAR

OR COMMUNION TABLE, ON ENTERING THE CHURCH.

THIS custom, which was prevalent when Bourne wrote, he deduces from the ancient practice of the Church of worshipping towards the east. This, says he, they did, that by so worshipping they might lift up their minds to God, who is called the Light, and the Creator of Light, therefore turning, says St. Austin,2 our faces to the east, from whence the day springs, that we might be reminded of turning to a more excellent nature, namely, the Lord. As also, that as man was driven out of Paradise, which is towards the east, he ought to look that way, which is an emblem of his desire to return

The following is from Langley's Abridgement of Polidore Vergil, f. 109: "The manner of turnyng our faces into the easte when wee praie, is taken of the old Ethnikes, whiche, as Apuleius remembereth, used to loke eastwarde and salute the sonne: we take it in a custom to put us in remembraunce that Christe is the sonne of righteousnes, that discloseth all secretes."

2 De Sermone Domini in monte, ii. 5.

thither. Again it was used when they were baptised: they first turned their faces to the west, and so renounced the devil ; and then to the east, and made their covenant with Christ. Lastly, those of the ancient Church prayed that way, believing that our Saviour would come to judgment from that quarter of the heavens, St. Damascen asserting that when he ascended into heaven, he was taken up eastward, and that his disciples worshipped him that way; and therefore chiefly it was that in the ancient Church they prayed with their faces to the east. Hence it is that at this day many persons turn their faces to that quarter of the world at the repetition of the Creed. But what speaks it to have been the universal opinion of the Church is the ancient custom of burying corpses with the feet to the east and head to the west, continued to this day by the Church of England.

Dr. Comber says, "Some ancient authors tell us that the old inhabitants of Attica buried thus before the days of Solon, who, as they report, convinced the Athenians that the island of Salamis did of right belong to them by showing them dead bodies looking that way, and sepulchres turned towards the east, as they used to bury." Diog. Laert. Vit. Solon, &c. And the Scholiast upon Thucydides says, it was the manner of all the Greeks to bury their dead in that manner.

Our learned countryman, Gregory, tells us that the Holy Men of Jerusalem held a tradition, generally received from the ancients, that our Saviour himself was buried with his face and feet towards the east.2

I find the following in a curious tract, entitled a Light shining out of Darkness, or Occasional Queries, 1659, p. 26:

1 St. Damascen (lib. iv. c. 14, Orthod. Fid.) therefore tells us that because the Scriptures say that God planted Paradise in Eden towards the east, where he placed the man which he had formed, whom he punished with banishment upon his transgression, and made him dwell over against Paradise in the western part, we therefore pray (says he), being in quest of our ancient country, and, as it were, panting after it, do worship God that way.

2 "Bede (in Die Sanct. Paschæ, tom. vii.) says, that as the holy women entered at the eastern part into the circular house hewn out in the rock, they saw the angel sitting at the south part of the place where the body of Jesus had lain, i. e. at his right hand; for undoubtedly his body, having its face upwards, and the head to the west, must have its right hand to the south." Bourne, chap. v.

"This reason likewise the common people give for their being buryed with their feet toward the east, so that they may be in a fitter posture to meet the sun of righteousness when he shall appear with healing in his wings, viz. at the resurrection." The subsequent remark is found at p. 30: "Whether it be not a pretty foundation for the Oxford doctors to stand booted and spurred in the act? because there is mention made in the Scripture of being shod with the preparation of the Gospel?"

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Tis in the main allowed," says Selden, "that the heathens did, in general, look towards the east when they prayed, even from the earliest ages of the world." On this important subject the curious reader is referred to Alkibla; a Disquisition upon worshipping towards the East, by a Master of Arts of the University of Oxford, 1728. A Second Part, continuing the work from the primitive to the present times, appeared in 1731; and a second edition of the whole in 1740. The author, who signs his name to the second part, was Mr. William Asplin.

In this enlightened age it is almost superfluous to observe that bowing towards the altar is a vestige of the ancient ceremonial law.

Hickeringill, who has left a severe satire on the retainers of those forms and ceremonies that lean towards Popish superstition, tells us, in his Ceremony Monger, p. 15: "If I were a Papist, or Anthropo-morphite, who believes that God is enthroned in the east like a grave old king, I profess I would bow and cringe as well as any limber-ham of them all, and pay my adoration to that point of the compass (the east); but if men believe that the Holy One who inhabits eternity is also omnipresent, why do not they make correspondent ceremonies of adoration to every point of the compass?"

Concession must be made by every advocate for manly and rational worship, that there is nothing more in the east than in the belfry at the west end, or in the body of the church. We wonder, therefore, how ever this custom was retained by Protestants. The cringes and bowings of the Roman Catholics to the altar are in adoration of the corporal presence,

"

"Aulam regiam, id est, ecclesiam ingredientes ad altare inclinamus, quod quasi regem milites adoramus: æterni enim regis milites sumus.' Durandi Rationale, p. 226.

their wafer God, whom their fancies have seated and enthroned in this quarter of the east.

Mr. Mede tells us, that what reverential guise, ceremony, or worship they used at their ingress into churches, in the ages next to the Apostles (and some we believe they did), is wholly buried in silence and oblivion. The Jews used to bow themselves towards the Mercy-seat. The Christians, after them, in the Greek and Oriental churches, have, time out of mind, and without any known beginning, used to bow in like manner. They do it at this day. See Bingham's Antiquities.

At the end of Smart's curious Sermon, preached in the Cathedral church of Durham, July 27, 1628, among the charges brought against Bishop Cosens are the following: "Fifthly, he hath brought in a new custome of bowing the body downe to the ground before the altar (on which he hath set candlesticks, basons, and crosses, crucifixes and tapers, which stand there for a dumbe shew): hee hath taught and enjoyned all such as come neere the altar to cringe and bow unto it he hath commanded the choresters to make low leggs unto it, when they goe to light the tapers that are on it in the winter nights; and in their returne from it, hee hath enjoined them to make low leggs unto it againe, going backewards with their faces towards the east, till they are out of the inclosure where they (usually) stand. Sixthly, he enjoynes all them that come to the Cathedrall church to pray with their faces towards the east, scoulding and brawling with them, even in time of divine service, which refuse to doe it, and bidding them either to pray towards the east, or to be packing out of the church, so devoted is hee to this easterne superstition."

In Articles to be inquired of within the Diocese of Lincoln, 1641, the following occurs: "Do you know of any parson, vicar, or curate that hath introduced any offensive rites or ceremonies into the church, not established by the lawes of the land; as namely, that make three courtesies towards the communion table, that call the said table an altar, that enjoyne the people at their comming into the church to bow towards the east, or towards the communion table?"

In Altar-Worship, or Bowing to the Communion Table considered, by Z. Crofton, Presbyter, but proved Enemy to all Fanaticks, 1661, p. 60, we are informed that "the late Arch