ANTiaUITIES OF SELBORNE. 367 



" ocreis seu botis," according to the regular usage of their ancient 

 order. 



ITEM 2Qth. He here again, but with less earnestness, forbids 

 them foppish ornaments, and the affectation of appearing like 

 beaux with garments edged with costly furs, with fringed gloves, 

 and silken girdles trimmed with gold and silver. It is remark- 

 able 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 observed 

 and found, in his several visitations, that the sacramental plate 

 and cloths of the altar, surplices, &c. were sometimes left in such 

 an uncleanly and disgusting condition as to make the beholders 

 shudder with horror; "quod aliquibus sunt horrori;"* he there- 

 fore 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 

 further, that it seems quite preposterous to omit in sacred matters 

 that attention to decent cleanliness, the neglect of which would 

 disgrace a common convivial meeting.f 



ITEM 33d says that, though the relics of saints, the plate, 

 holy vestments, and books of religious houses, are forbidden by 

 canonical institutes to be pledged or lent out upon pawn ; yet, 

 as the visitor finds this to be the case in his several visitations, 

 he therefore strictly enjoins the prior forthwith to recal those 

 pledges, and to restore them to the convent ; and orders that all 

 the papers and title deeds thereto belonging should be safely 

 deposited, and kept under three locks and keys. 



* " Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." 1 >am. chap. ii. v. 17. Strange as this account 

 may appear to modern delicacy, the author, when first in orders, twice met with similar circum- 

 stances attending the sacrament at two churches be'onging 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 ol" 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. 



t " ne turpe toral, ne sordida niappa 



Corruget nares ; ne non et cantharus, et lanx 

 Ostendat tibi te " 



