By Canon W. H. Jones. 



331 



. a body, or a certain number of them, could, as in ancient times, be 

 i again recognised as the bishop's special advisers, and a " Court 

 Spiritual " revived under proper regulations and restrictions for at 

 | all events the first hearing of complaints against clergy, much un- 

 happy litigation might possibly be saved. They may perhaps have 

 ; been wrong in the opinion they expressed — they had, nevertheless, 

 ; abundant precedents for the course they suggested. 



II. — The twelfth section of the Consuetudinary is headed "Be 

 i cJiori ordinatione," and this and some twelve subsequent sections 

 refer to matters more or less bearing upon the ordering of the choir, 

 1 and of the " clerici " whose duties called them thither from time to 

 time ; such as, for instance, their mode of entering and leaving it, 

 or in passing from one part of it to the other ; rules as to the time 

 I by which they must enter it, and of standing or kneeling at various 

 1 portions of the services; of turning to the altar at certain times, of 

 I the habit to be worn by the clerics, of the office of the " Rectores 

 . Chori," or Rulers of the Choir, (one of the reforms introduced by 

 I Osmund) ; and, as bearing on the last-named office, two sections, 

 I one defining what its duties were, and the other explaining which 

 i were " double " and which " simple " festivals. A remark or two 

 I only can be made on a few of these matters. 



The canons and others ministering in the cathedral, when in choir, 

 ! sat in one of three rows of seats, 1 — the word used is "forma 

 i arranged on either side. On the first or lowest seat were the "pueri/' 

 or choristers, who were divided into " pueri canonici" or those on the 

 - foundation or roll of the cathedral, and " pueri non-canonici" or 

 \ what we should probationers, among the latter probably being some 

 ; who served as acolytes. On the second or middle row, sat the junior 

 i canons, the junior vicars, and other clerics ministering in the choir, — 

 ' that is, the sub-deacons and clerks in minor orders (minorum 

 ' ordinum clerici) . On the first, or upper row, sat the chief dignitaries, 



1 The seats on which the Canons and Vicars sat do not seem to have boon at 

 the first arranged in what we call stalls, for in § xv. we have a direction to the 

 "clerics" to order themselves with care, each in his proper place, so that they 

 need not "jump over" the forms ; — " Intrantes clerici in locis suis ita se ordinato 

 recipiant ne formas inordinate transiliant. 



XOL. XIX. — NO. LVII. 2 C 



