466 
ANTIQUITIES 
and silver. It is remarkable that no punisliment 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. Ho 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 ;^'' 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 cleanliness, the neglect of which 
would disgrace a common convivial meeting. 
lie turpe toral, ne sordida mappa 
Corruget nares ; ne non et cantharus, et lanx 
Ostendat tibi te " 
Item 33d says that, though the relics of saints, the plate, 
^ " Men abhorred ihe offering of the Lord." — 1 Sam. chap. ii. v. 17. 
Strange as this account may appear to modern delicacy, the author, 
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 r and in 
