506 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2>"i S. VI. 155., Dec. 18. '58. 



week, they were subject ; three fell dead in the course of 

 their cruel tasks ; two were trampled to death by their 

 drunken guards; three were drowned in these brutal 

 noyades ; nine were killed by the falling of a wall, and 

 five were crushed in an excavation, while engaged in the 

 works already referred to ; eight became blind ; two lost 

 their reason ; several others were maimed and crippled in 

 various waj's; so that, in the year 1845, out of three 

 united communities (which at the first had numbered 

 fifty-eight), only four_, of whom JVIakrena was the chief, 

 retained the use of their limbs ! These heroines of faith 

 and endurance contrived at last to effect their escape 

 from Polosk, from which place it had been resolved to 

 transport them to Siberia ; and, through a thousand dif- 

 ficulties and dangers, Makrena Mirazylawski made her 

 adventurous way to Konie." 



When the invalid Empress was visited at Naples 

 by Nicholas, her husband (Dec. 1845), he thought 

 it etiquette to wait on the Pope, Gregory XVI. 

 (not Pio Nona). Gregory was attended by Car- 

 dinal Acton and Nicholas by Bouteneff. Gregory 

 introduced the subject of these Polish nuns : what 

 he said or what the Emperor replied is unknown, 

 except that Gregory after the interview said, " I 

 spake as I was moved by the Holy Ghost." Here 

 were two great powers at issue, the one having 

 the will, but not the power, to persecute; the other 

 having the will, the power, and the entelechy (ac- 

 tuality). Cardinal Wiseman {Four Last Popes, 

 pp. 510 — 514.) states that the Emperor passed 

 into the Pope's audience with his usual air of 

 patronage, but — 



" he came forth again with head uncovered and hair, if it 

 can be said of man, dishevelled, haggard and pale, look- 

 ing as though in an hour he had passed through the con- 

 densation of a protracted fever, taking long strides, with 

 stooping shoulder, unobservant, unsaluting ; he waited 

 not for his carriage to come to the foot of the stairs, but 

 rushed out into the outer court, and hurried away from 

 apparently the scene of a discomfiture." 



All this was (Jnr6Kpi(ns) acting, and meant more 

 than Burleigh's shake of the head. To the au- 

 thorities above mentioned, and those already cited 

 in proof in " N. & Q.," may be added the Allge- 

 meine Zeitung for 1846, No. 4. p. 27., and the 

 Kirchen- Lexicon, iv. p. 729. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



COMMUNION TOKENS : COMMUNION HALrPENCE. 



(2"" S. vi. 432.) 



Me. Burn will find some light thrown upon his 

 Query in a volume recently published by the 

 Surtees Society, entitled The Acts of the High 

 Commission Court within the Diocese of Durham. 

 In 1634 John liichardson, of Durham, Esq., was 

 charged with disturbance of divine service on 

 Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter Day, and 

 one of the witnesses examined testifies that : 

 " Richardson sometymes himself in person, as farmer of 

 the rectorie of the said chappelrye (of St. Margaret's, 

 Durham), hath received the oblacions and Easter reck- 

 ninges, and other some tymes his farmers have for his 



use received the same of the communicanfes at Easter 

 yearly, and in the tyme of Divine service, upon the Palme 

 Sondaies and Easter Dale (upon which daies the younge 

 people doe usuallie receive the Holie Comnmnion), have 

 usuallie written, and doe soe write downe the names of 

 all the then coramunicantes not householders, and att the 

 tyme of writinge these names dow deliver them tokens, 

 which in the tyme of the admiuistracion of the sacrament 

 thej' have done and doe call for againe, to the end the_v 

 may knowe whoe doe pay their Easter offeringes and 

 whoe doe not ; but whether the same hath bene used 

 auncientlie, or whether it be a custome, or is observed in 



anie other parish, examinate cannot depose The 



communicantes upon those daies are for the most part 

 servantes and young people, whoe doe usuallie goe to the 

 Communion, and never repare to the proctors to recken 

 for or pay their oblacions, soe the proctors must eyther 

 looke for their reckninges in communion tyme, or else 

 lose them." 



Another witness deposes that — 

 " for 40 jearsKichardson, or under-farmers to him, have 

 received the tiethes, duties, and all Easter reckeninges 

 within the chaplerie of Set. Margaret t's. Some time 

 about 16 or 20 yeares now gone hath scene Richardson at 

 Easter time goe upp and downe amongst the communi- 

 cants, and in time of receiving the Holie Communion re- 

 ceive of some communicants some monies, and take in 

 certaine leade tokens (as the use of the parish is) from 

 such as had formerlie by there maisters reckened and 

 payed. Hath seene all whoe were under-farmers to 

 Richardson since that tyme, namlie, Thomas Stott, Ni- 

 cholas Wryter, Raph Wilson, and others, doe the like." — 

 yicts f/ftlie High Comviission, ^'c, pp. 9G. 98. 



These extracts sufficiently show, I think, what 

 the Communion tokens and Communion halfpence 

 were. George ORssnif. 



Fishlake Vicarage, Doncaster. 



I know not whether J. S. Burn is aware of the 

 invariable practice of the Presbyterian Kirk of 

 furnishing every intending communicant with a 

 metal token, which is demanded by the elders of 

 the Kirk before any communicant is admitted to 

 the table of the Lord. There is usually a devo- 

 tioniil service going on while the tokens are being 

 collected, called " Fencing the tables." 



James Fraser. 



Cambridge. 



Communion tokens are in general use in all 

 Presbyterian congregations in Scotland at the 

 present day. The object in giving out these 

 tokens, as their name implies, is to prevent any 

 persons from partaking of the Lord's Supper who 

 has not been })reviously examined by the minister, 

 and considered worthy. Intending communicants 

 apply at the vestry of their church on the Thurs- 

 day or Saturday previous to the Communion, on 

 which days there are public services, and there 

 receive each a token from the minister or elders. 

 On the Sunday, when the communicants take 

 their seats at the sacramental table, the elders go 

 round and get back the tokens ; and, unless well 

 known to the church officials, any one who had 



