465 ANTIQUITIES 



and silver. It is remarkable that no punishment is annexed 

 to this injunction. 



[Item 30th. The bishop appears to have believed in the 

 vulgar adage that what is every body's business is nobody's 

 business ; and probably attributed to this cause much of 

 the disorder that prevailed. He here remarks that as each 

 office ought to be committed to a special officer, he requires 

 that to be done for the future : such officers to be elected 

 according to the custom of the Priory. The penalty for 

 disobedience in this case is no less than excommunication.] 



Item 31st. He here singly and severally forbids each 

 canon not admitted to a cure of souls to administer ex- 

 treme unction, or the sacrament, to clergy or laity, or to 

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

 licence of the parish priest. 



Item 32nd. 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 condi- 

 tion as to make the beholders shudder with horror ; " quod 

 aliquibus sunt horrori; 1 " 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 

 cthat attention to decent cleanliness, the neglect of which 

 would disgrace a common convivial meeting. 



" lie turpe toral, ne sordida mappa 



Corruget nares ; nc non et caritharus, et lanx 

 Ostendat tibi tc " 



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



1 " Men abhorred the offering of the Lord." 1 Sam. chap. ii. v. 17, 

 Strange as this account may appear to modern delicacy, the autlior, 

 when first in orders, twice met with similar circumstances attending the 

 sacrament at two churches belonging to two obscure villages. In the 

 first he found the inside of the chalice covered with birds' dung : and in 



