By Canon W. H. Jones. 



337 



" in medio" then " in dextra parte" then " in sinistra" — and then 

 follow these words " Deinde thurificando altare circueat" ; i.e., "he 

 shall go right round the altar." 



Again, in § 67, which is " De modo benedicendi aquam," &c, i.e., 

 on the mode of blessing the water for the purposes of aspersion, we 

 are told that the priest (sacerdos ebdomadarius) , attended by a 

 deacon, and sub-deacon bearing a text (=copy of the gospels), 

 and a thurifer, and taper-bearers, and an acolyte bearing a cross, all 

 of them dressed in albs, and turned towards the altar in the middle 

 of the presbytery, [altare in medio pre shy terii) } shall, being himself 

 vested in a silken cope, bless the holy water at the choir-step. 



Then, in § 68, the Priest is directed to go to the high altar and 

 sprinkle it on every side (et ipsum circiimqudque aspergat) . 



From these extracts, we must, it is conceived, draw these two 

 inferences — (i.) that originally — the high altar stood in a detached 

 position, at some distance from any wall, otherwise how could the 

 Priest " cense " and " sprinkle " it on the eastern side, since in the 

 I former case some space must surely have been left for the swinging 

 of the censer, and in the latter he was certainly accompanied by the 

 boy carrying the water; and (ii.) that it occupied a central position, 

 for when the Consuetudinary describes it as standing " in medio 

 prtsbyterii " it can hardly mean that it was then placed at the east 

 end of it. 



IV. — At § 69, and thenceforward to § 92, we have a number of 

 minute directions as to the " Processions,"" both inside the cathedral 

 — a custom, in the form in which it is ordained in the Consuetu- 

 dinary, peculiar to the Sarum Use 1 — and also outside the ca- 

 thedral; and amongst them of those on the Rogation Days, or, as 

 ! they were called, the Gang-days. No one can read the Consuetu- 

 j dinary without at once perceiving how important a part these solemn 



1 Solemn processions were used on important occasions, and especially in times 

 of trouble and difficulty ; solemn litanies being then recited as a means of 

 averting threatened judgment and supplicating help from Almighty God. Thus, 

 in the Dunham Reg., fol. 104, under date of A.D. 1388, we have this entry, 

 " Episcopus [John Waltham] mandat processioncm pro pace regis et regni" 

 Many other instances of a similar character might be mentioned. 



