50 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»4 S. X. July 21. '60. 



him health ; the pelican that was thought to bring 

 back to life her dead offt^pring by tearing open her 

 own breast, and sprinkling them with her warm 

 blood, all were meant to bring to men's minds 

 how Christ had taken man's flesh to die, and thus 

 become their only Saviour. Stronger still did the 

 church of our fathers teach this doctrine to her 

 children in all her several service-books. But 

 without stopping now to gather from missals, and 

 breviaries, and grails, and manuals, and other such 

 sources any evidences of this, let us go on to other 

 written documents more at hand which show how 

 deeply and widely this great truth was made to 

 spread itself all through, not merely our more 

 serious and religious literature, but even the 

 lighter productions of the poet and the minstrel. 



The first lesson that, whilom in this land, our 

 brothers and sisters of the faith had taught them 

 from earliest childhood, was this very doctrine of 

 the Atonement. The A, B, C, put into their lit- 

 tle hands, was conspicuously headed by the em- 

 blem of man's redemption, the cross, and for the 

 reason following : — 



" Quan a chyld to scole xal set be, 

 A bok hym is browt, 



Naylj'd on a brede of tre, 



That men callyt an abece, 

 Pratylych i-wrout. 



Wrout is on the bok without, 



V. paraffys grete and stoute, 

 Rolyd in rose-red ; 



That is set withoutyn doute, 



In tokenyn of Cristes ded. 



Be this bok men may dyvyne 

 That Christes body was ful of pyne, 



That doyid on rode tre. 

 On tre he was don ful blythe 

 With grete paraffys, that ben wondes. V. 



As ye mon understonde. 



But God that let hys body aprede 

 Upon the rode for manys nede, 



In hevene us alle avaunce! " 



Rcliqiiice AntiquicB, Scraps from 

 Ancient Manuscripts, Sfc, edit. 

 Wright and Halliwell, i. 63. 



Nay, the child's first spelling book was called 

 Crist Crosse me spede : — 



" How long agoo lernyd ye, Crist crosse me spede ! 

 Have ye no more lernyd of j'oure a. b. c." 



Lydgate's Minor Poems, printed by 

 the Percy Society, p. 42. 

 " Crosse was made all of red 

 In the begynning of my boke 

 That is callyd god me sped. 

 In the fyrste lesson that j toke, 

 Thenne j lerned . a. and . b. 

 And other letters bj' her names, 

 But alwaye god spede me. 

 Thought me nedefull in all games, 

 Yf j played in felde other medes, 

 Stylle otiier wythe noys, 

 I prayed helpe in all my dedes 

 Of bym that deyed upon the croys." 



Typographical Antiquities, ed. Dib- 

 din, ii. 811, 



Besides being thus led, even while playing in field 

 and mead, to think of Him who made the cross 

 red with His own blood through love for man, 

 the English child, as he grew up, was taught to 

 bless himself, that is, make upon his own breast 

 the sign of the cross which at baptism the priest 

 had marked upon his forehead, and again in the 

 palm of his right hand, in witness of this same 

 belief. The reason for thus blessing himself he 

 was told was this : — * 



"Then lete us so blysse us with the sygne of the 

 blessyd crosse that we may therby be kept fro the power 

 of oure goostli and dedeli enmye the deuyll. And by the 

 merytes of y* gloryous passyon that our Savour Jhesu 

 Cryst suffred on the crosse after this lyf we may come to 

 everlastynge lyf in heuen." {The Golden Legend, ed. 

 Wynkyn de Word, a.d. 1527, fol. cxxix.) 



Come to the age of youth they heard the same 

 doctrine from sermons, and books of religious in- 

 struction. In the sermon for Passion Sunday, the 

 " Festival " .says : — 



" So lete us leve all our othes and lyve as cristen peo- 

 ple sholde doo, and reverence the passyon of our lord 

 Jhesu criste: y* was cause of our redempcyon; by the 

 whiche.we shall come to everlastinge blisse," fol. xxviii., b. 



Like to this is what is said in explanation of the 

 ceremonies on Palm Sunday, fols. xxix. xxxii., 

 Good Friday, fol. xxxv.. Holy Thursday, fol. 

 xli., b. " Of the sweje and holy name of iesus," 

 this " Festival " says : — 



" Forsoth ihesus by interpretacion is as moche to say 

 as a savyour; a helthe gyver; or helthe it selfe. All -we 

 be synners and all we be borne chyldren of yre ;' and have 

 nede of grace sayth saint Poule. Of whom shall we have 

 this grace ; and be delivered from synne : certeiuly of none 

 other but of iesu, that is — of ihesus full of grace, and by 

 whom all grace and our salvation cometh. And withoute 

 ihesus no grace may be hadde nor no good dede wrought," 

 fol. cxxx. 



" Jesus : this is the name ; and there is none other to 

 be saved hi." fol. cxxxiiii. 



Often, too, this is the ending of the sermons in 

 the " Festival : "— 



" To that blysse (of heaven) bringe us all to : he that 

 dyed on the rode tree for all mankinde. Amen," fol. 

 Ixxix. 



The youth, while preparing himself for the 

 clerical state, was taught to behold how Christ in 

 the flesh went, after a manner, through every step 

 in holy order, from the tonsure upwards, to the 

 great high priesthood, before He oflTered up himself 

 in sacrifice for man's redemption. Of this the religi- 

 ous poems of William de Shoreham, vicar of Chart 

 Sutton, Kent, and edited for the Percy Society 

 by Mr. T. Wright, will afford us a popular proof. 

 Speaking of the priesthood, Shoreham says : — 



" And wanne he y-ordred hys, 

 Hym faith an holy g3'se, 

 Hys honden beth anoynte bothe 

 Thor-out a cirowche wyse, 

 Tafonge 



