By Canon W. H. Jones. 337 



"in medio" then "in dextra parte" then "in sinistra" — and then 

 follow these words " Deinde thurificando altare circueat" ; i.e., "he 

 shall go riffkt ronnd the altar." 



Again, in § 67, which is " De inodo benedicendi aquam," &e., i.e., 

 on the mode of blessing the water for the purposes of aspersion, we 

 are told that the priest [sacerdos ebdomadarius) , attended by a 

 deacon, and sub-deacon bearing a text (=copy of the gospels), 

 and a thurifer, and taper-bearers, and an acolyte bearing a cross, all 

 of them dressed in albs, and turned towards the altar in the middle 

 of the presbytery, [altare in medio preslyterii) , shall, being himself 

 vested in a silken cope, bless the holy water at the choir-step. 



Then, in § 68, the Priest is directed to go to the high altar and 

 sprinkle it on everi/ side (et ipsum circumqudque aspergat) . 



From these extracts, we must, it is conceived, draw these two 

 inferences — (i.) that originally — the high altar stood in a detached 

 position, at some distance from any wall, otherwise how could the 

 Priest " cense " and " sprinkle " it on the eastern side, since in the 

 former case some space must surely have been left for the swinging 

 of the censer, and in the latter he was certainly accompanied by the 

 boy carrying the water; and (ii.) that it occupied a central position, 

 for when the Consuetudinary describes it as standing " in medio 

 preshyterii " it can hardly mean that it was then placed at the east 

 end of it. 



IV. — At § 69, and thenceforward to § 92, we have a number of 

 minute directions as to the " Processions,''^ both inside the cathedral 

 — a custom, in the form in which it is ordained in the Consuetu- 

 dinary, peculiar to the Sarum Use ^ — and also outside the ca- 

 thedral ; and amongst them of those on the Rogation Days, or, as 

 they were called, the (jang-days. No one can read the Consuetu- 

 dinary without at once perceiving how important a part these solemn 



* Solemn processions were used on important occasions, and especially in times 

 of trouble and difficulty ; solemn litanies being then recited as a means of 

 averting threatened judgment and supplicating help from Almighty God. Thus, 

 in the Dunham Reg., fol. 104, under date of A.D. 1388, we have this entry, 

 " Episcopus [John Waltham] mandat processionem pro pace regis et regni" 

 Many other instances of a similar character might be mentioned. 



