By Cation W. H. Jones. 33 i 



a body, or a cei-tain number of them, could, as in ancient times, be 

 again recognised as the bishop's special advisers, and a " Court 

 Spiritual " revived under proper regulations and restrictions for at 

 all events the first hearing of complaints against clergy, much un- 

 happy litigation might possibly be saved. They may perhaps have 

 been wrong in the opinion they expressed — they had, nevertheless, 

 abundant precedents for the course they suggested. 



II. — The twelfth section of the Consuetudinary is headed "i?e 

 chori orditiatione," and this and some twelve subsequent sections 

 refer to matters more or less bearing upon the ordering of the choir, 

 and of the " clerici " whose duties called them thither from time to 

 time ; such as, for instance, their mode of entering and leaving it, 

 or in passing from one part of it to the other ; rules as to the time 

 by which they must enter it, and of standing or kneeling at various 

 portions of the services; of turning to the altar at certain times, of 

 the habit to be worn by the clerics, of the office of the " Rectores 

 Chori," or Rulers of the Choir, (one of the reforms introduced by 

 Osmund) ; and, as bearing on the last-named office, two sections, 

 one defining what its duties were, and the other explaining which 

 were "double" and which "simple" festivals. A remark or two 

 only can be made on a few of these matters. 



The canons and others ministering in the cathedral, when in choir, 

 sat in one of three rows of seats,* — the word used is "/orma" — 

 arranged on either side. On the first or lowest seat were the "pueri," 

 or choristers, who were divided into " pueri canonici," or those on the 

 foundation or roll of the cathedral, and "pueri non-canonici," or 

 what we should ctiW probationers, axnovig the latter probably being some 

 who served as acolytes. On the second or middle row, sat the junior 

 canons, the junior vicars, and other clerics ministering in the choir, — 

 that is, the sub-deacons and clerks in minor orders (minorum 

 ordinum clerici) . On the first, or upper row, sat the chief dignitaries, 



* The seats on which the Canons and Vicars sat do not seem to have been at 

 the first aiTanged in what we call stalls, for in § xv. we have a direction to the 

 " clerics " to order themselves with care, each in lus proper place, so that they 

 need not " jump over " the forms ; — " Intrantes clerici in locis suis ita se ordinate 

 recipiant ne formas inordinate transiliant. 



XOL. XIK. — NO. LVII. 2 C 



