OF SELBORNE. 331 



against this than any other irregularity ; and strictly enjoins 

 them, under pain of ecclesiastical censures, and even im- 

 prisonment if necessary (a threat not made use of before,) for 

 the future to wear boots, " ocreis seu botis," according to the 

 regular usage of their ancient order. 



Item 29th. He here again, but with less earnestness, 

 forbids them foppish ornaments, and the affectation of ap- 

 pearing like beaux with garments edged with costly furs, with 

 fringed gloves, and silken girdles trimmed with gold and 

 silver. It is remarkable that no punishment is annexed to 

 this injunction. 



Item 31st. He here singly and severally forbids each 

 canon not admitted to a cure of souls to administer extreme 

 unction, or the sacrament, to clergy or laity ; or to perform 

 the service of matrimony, till he has taken out the license of 

 the parish priest. 



Item 32d. The bishop says in this item that he had ob- 

 served and found, in his several visitations, that the sacra- 

 mental plate and cloths of the altar, surplices, &c. were some- 

 times left in such an uncleanly and disgusting condition as to 

 make the beholders shudder with horror; quod aliquibus 

 sunt horrori;" k he therefore enjoins them for the future to 

 see that the plate, cloths, and vestments, be kept bright, clean, 

 and in decent order: and, what must surprise the reader, adds 

 that he expects for the future that the sacrist should 

 provide for the sacrament good wine, pure and unadulterated ; 

 and not, as had often been the practice, that which was sour, 

 and tending to decay : he says farther, that it seems quite 

 preposterous to omit in sacred matters that attention to decent 



k " Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." I Sam. chap. ii. r. 17. 

 Strange as this account may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when 

 first in orders, twice met with similar circumstances attending the sacra- 

 ment at two churches belonging to two obscure villages. In the first he 

 found the inside of the chalice covered with birds' dung ; and in the 

 other the communion- cloth soiled with cabbage and the greasy drippings 

 of a gammon of bacon. The good dame at the great farm-house, who 

 was to furnish the cloth, being a notable woman, thought it best to save 

 her clean linen, and so sent a foul cloth that had covered her own table 

 for two or three Sundays before. 



