CORRESPONDENCE.-WAKES AND FEASTS.

with the rubric during the ember season in December next, when my own venerable diocesan will have holden an ordination in the week immediately preceding that appointed by the canon, and when I shall, probably, be ignorant whether any ordination will be holden in any part of England at the lawfully appointed time? Surely, Sir, in the present critical state of our church, we are all, whether bishops or curates, specially bound to remind those congregations which have been, by God, committed to our charge, of their duty in every respect, otherwise we cannot reasonably hope that he will hear our prayers, so as to pour down upon us all the dew of his heavenly blessing. Surely, we are all bound to observe the ember seasons, as well as the other solemn fasts, and also the festivals of our church. And therefore I will, with your permission, take the liberty of referring to the explanation of the term "Ember Days," &c., as given by R. Nelson, Esq., in his admirable "Companion for the Fasts and Festivals of the Church of England":

"What are ember days?

"Certain days set apart for consecrating to God the four seasons of the year, and for the imploring of his blessing, by fasting and prayer, upon the ordinations performed in the church at such times. apostles, who, when they separated persons for the work of the ministry, prayed and And this in conformity to the practice of the fasted before they laid on their hands. heaven at this time after the same manner, that God would be pleased so to govern It will become us, therefore, to address the mind of the bishops, that they may admit none into holy orders but such as are duly qualified for the discharge of that sacred function; and that those who shall be ordained to serve at the altar may, by their exemplary lives and zealous labours, turn many to righteousness.

"When are these ember days observed in the church?

"At the four seasons of the year; being the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, after Whitsunday, after the 14th of September, and after the 13th of December; it being enjoined by a canon of the church, that no deacons or ministers be ordained or made but only on the Sundays immediately following these ember fasts."

Diocese of York, Nov. 11, 1837.

I am, Mr. Editor, yours obediently, M.

SUNDAY WAKES AND FEASTS.

SIR,-I am one of those who have too much reverence for antiquity to be pleased with change for mere innovation's sake, and earnestly desire that whatever has had its origin in piety and charity may be preserved so long as it continues to tend to holiness and good will among men. The festivals of the church, which the reformers in their wisdom thought proper to retain, were doubtless intended to promote these good ends and the insertion of the many names of saints and martyrs in the calendar offends me not. to say no more of it, that was made by the puritans in their futile I am aware also of the mistake, attempt to abolish the keeping of many days which the church has ever celebrated as high and holy, and will, I trust, continue to be regarded as such to the end of time. Besides these, there are many little ceremonies attached to times and seasons which are grateful to the eye, and convey a lesson to the heart. I live in a part of England which, being a remote and formerly a border country, still holds to the ob

servance of them. But along with these we have one usage which, though founded in religion, has been perverted to purposes most profane. Corruptio rei optima pessima. The wakes and feasts established in honour of the saints to whom the several churches were dedicated were intended to produce very different feelings and behaviour from those with which they are now celebrated, and have long degenerated into the most immoral and lawless meetings. I speak of them as they are kept here; for I do not travel far enough to know in what way they are kept in other parts. They are now confined to the peasantry, and those whose minds are of the most depraved cast, so that they are become a reproach to the church under whose sanction they were retained;-for dissenters, I believe, rarely or never are found to attend them. They begin customarily on the sabbath, and in some places continue for several days, scenes of little better than drunkenness, dissolution, and outrage. I am far from wishing that the common people should be debarred from reasonable amusement upon proper occasions, if they could be brought to confine themselves to that which would promote health of body, and wholesome relaxation of mind; but we know by experience how little this is the practice of Englishmen. The poetical hypothesis of these assemblies may be captivating; but the reality is unquestionably most abominable. They are now grown to such a pitch as to be carried on in defiance of all order and law. We have a series of them which begin about May, and are continued to the end of autumn; and the desecration of the sabbath, the demoralization of servants of both sexes, the brawling and loss of life that they occasion, are hardly to be credited. The spirit in which they are carried on in one respect reminds me of that of the northern borderers in good Gilpin's days. Challenges are previously given and accepted, and old grudges are fought out at these feasts: not unfrequently it ends in the death of one of the parties; and very recently cases have occurred which have approached nearer to murder than manslaughter. The common parochial authorities are overpowered; the clergy who interfere are exposed to insult and assault; and the whole of the well disposed part of the country, who suffer from these meetings, are loud in their complaints against them. Some attempts have been made to procure their abolition, without success. Last year a formal representation was made to the magistrates of one of the districts, who upon mature deliberation declared they had no power to put them down. My object in requesting you to do me the favour of inserting this communication, is to ask some of your correspondents whether in other parts of England where feasts and wakes may continue to be held, the nuisance has been found equal to this,—whether any and what attempts have been made to obtain a remedy,-what is the best method to adopt in endeavouring to obtain it,—and what means have been found in any way most successful for the correction, I should rather say abolition, of such occasions of disorder. I remain, Sir, your obedient humble servant, SILUR.

Nov. 9th, 1837.

P.S. I venture to add that early information will be most acceptable.

ON THE MOST APPROPRIATE APPELLATION OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.

SIR, Professors of the Roman communion, the most slenderly informed on the subject of their own faith, must know, that the highest place for importance, honour, and authority, is in their church given to the individual whom they call emphatically the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the universal pastor and ruler, the sole successor of the Prince of the apostles, the head, the rock, the centre, the sun of their whole system-in one word, the sovereign lord of Christendom. The superhuman, the almost divine, dignity of this personage has been felt, acknowledged, and gloried in, by many of his subjects, even in later times; and they have claimed it as their most honourable distinction, to be named from him. The profession of Baronius, in his Martyrology, Oct. 16, has frequently been appealed to, and is remarkableSint igitur nobis viventibus hæc semper præconia laudum, et post mortem tituli sepulchrales, ut Romani sic semper dicamur atque Papista. Whatever might be the design of those who applied the name, in his own view it was highly honourable, and for the obvious reason. But my principal reason for the present communication is, to introduce to yourself and your readers another declaration to the same effect, far less familiar. The Life of Cardinal Hosius, Bishop of Warmia, and Legate at the concluding sessions of the Council of Trent, was written by Stanislaus Rescius, Apostolic Protonotary, and published at Rome 1587. My edition is that printed Typis Monast. S. O. C. Olive Anno 1690. In Lib. i. cap. xix. pp. 82, 83, the biographer introduces his hero as answering the observation of the protestant Duke of Brandenburg in a conference, Quantum video, tu velles me facere Papistam, in the following manner: Ego, inquit, profiteor me esse Christianum, postea Papistam, deinde Registam, et si natus essem in ditione tua, non erubescam profiteri me Ducistam. And then, naturally enough, after expatiating in high praises of his great spiritual sovereign, he adds Proinde me non offendi, verùm etiam laudi ducere, si quis me vocet primùm Christianum, deinde Papistam, postea Registam. Again, Lib. iii. cap. xviii. p. 371, the Cardinal, in his last will and testament, is reported as enouncing-Quicunque tecum, Pie Pontifex, non colligit, spargit; qui Christi non est, Antichristi est. Qui Papista non est, Sathanista est-and, after a few intervening words-nullum vel gloriosius, vel salutare magis nomen mihi tribui posse persuasum habeo, quam si Papista vocer. Now, I would respectfully request the members of the Romish church, if they really feel hurt by the appellation of papist, to supply us with some other equivalent name; unless they would be understood altogether to repudiate the supreme head of their church, and considerate the imputation of any connexion with him a disgrace and insult. It will not do to say that in this country the name is used opprobriously; for the very individuals cited above were in the same predicament; they knew and asserted that the term was in their time applied by their opponents as a term of reproach. But they did not shrink from it on that account: they, very consistently and honourably, in that respect, came forward with an open

acceptance and vindication of the name. This, perhaps, might be the case in some instances in this country, if there were not a tendency in the intemperate indignation with which the name is disclaimed to force protestants, of more sentimentality than integrity, to substitute for it the name of catholic. And that this is not done, Romanists may, in part, have to thank the precipitate and incorrect zeal of some of their advocates, in founding upon the complimentary or inadvertent grant of the name, by some protestants, a formal admission of the exclusive catholicity of the church of Rome, together with its consequence, the non-catholicity and schism of their own.

J. M.

SEE OF SODOR AND MAN.

SIR,-The great apparent discrepancy between the historical statement given in the memorial of the Bishop of the Isle of Man, and that of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Earl of Ripon's motion on Thursday last, may render the following history of the "See of the Isles" interesting and explanatory :

"This see contained formerly not only the Ebudæ or Western Isles, but also the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man was formerly a part of the kingdom of Scotland. The Island of Hy or I was in former ages a place famous for sanctity and learning, and very early honoured with the seat of a bishop. It was called also Icolum-kill, from St. Columba, who founded a monastery here about the year 560. The Scots used to commit the care of the education of the young princes who were heirs of the crown to the bishops of this diocese, who had three places of residence; viz., the Isles of Icolmkill, Man, and Bute. These prelates were promiscuously designed, "Episcopi Manniæ et Insularum," "Episcopi Æbudarum," and "Episcopi Sodorenses." The latter name being given them from a church, the cathedral in Icolmkill, dedicated to our Saviour, for whom the Greek name is Soter; hence Sotorensis and Sodorensis. So also the Island itself, called also Hy- Y, Iona or Ionah, derives that last name from the word Jonah, which in Hebrew signifies a pigeon, and is so called from St. Columba, which name bears the same signification. In the year 1065, the Isle of Man fell into the hands of the Norwegians; and in the year 1098 the Western Isles came also into their possession. Until the close of the eleventh century, the Bishops of the Isles had resided generally at Iona; after the Norwegian conquest, the cathedral was transferred to the Isle of Man, and Wymundus was made Bishop. During these two hundred years, the residence of the bishop seems to have been in Man. In the year 1266, the Isle of Man was reconquered by Alexander the Third, King of Scotland; and probably the seat of the Bishop of the Isles alternated between Man and Iona till the reign of Edward the Third, 1336, when the Isle of Man was subdued by the English, of which they have ever since retained possession. The lords of this isle appointed bishops of their own in Man, and the Scots continued the succession of the bishops of the isles until the abolition of episcopacy at the Revolution, in 1688."

It will be apparent from the above brief sketch, that the statement of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, as to there having been an "almost uninterrupted succession of insular bishops for more than 1400 years,' is perfectly in accordance with historical facts; whilst the assertion of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that "the see had existed in its present state only 400 (rather 500) years, as confined to the single island," by no means militates against the Bishop's position.

I

St. David's, Exeter, Dec. 18th, 1837.

am, yours &c., E. C. HARINGTON.

DOXOLOGY AT THE GOSPEL.

SIR, A reader of your esteemed publication wishes to know, whether it is becoming in a clergyman to prohibit the pious and laudable practice of saying, "Glory be to thee, O Lord," when the Holy Gospel is announced at the altar? You will naturally doubt whether any clergyman could be so presumptuous, to set up his own crude notions in opposition to the received usage of the catholic church, in every age, from the period of the venerable Chrysostom, or be so ignorant as to justify the omission, because there happens to be no rubric specifically authorizing it. Whereas he ought to know, that a solemn and approved rite forms part of the lex non scripta of the church, and is as binding on the members of its communion as if it had been enforced by a rubric, which, in fact, the rite in question presupposes. It is not, I apprehend, necessary to inform your readers what ritualists observe on this portion of our service; but I cannot help remarking, that as such a rubric was inserted in the liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, and restored in the Scotch liturgy, Bishop Cosins's conjecture is highly probable, that it was omitted by mistake in ours at the last revision. AMICUS ECCLESIÆ.

NEW FORM OF WILLS.

DEAR SIR,-You are doubtless aware of important alterations having been effected in the mode of making wills, which by the new Will Act are directed to take place on the first day of January next.

The new law having made many material changes in the mode of bequeathing property, I trust that I shall be excused in bringing under the notice of your readers one or two of the principal directions, as I fear without a due attention thereto the benevolent intentions of many will be frustrated. It will be recollected that, under the old law, any will of personal property, in the testator's handwriting, without being signed by him, or attested by any witnesses, was sufficient; under the new act, the will, whether or not in the testator's handwriting, must be signed by him, or by some person by his direction, and in his presence, at the foot or conclusion thereof, the signature to be made or acknowledged by the testator, in the presence of two witnesses at least, who must at the same time write their names on the will, attesting the testator's signature, which (although the act does not require any particular form of attestation) I recommend should be in the following words: Signed, sealed, published, and declared, by the above-named A. B., as and for his last will and testament, in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses thereto, in the presence of the said testator, and in the presence of each other.

It is material to observe, that every codicil to a will, and all alterations and additions to a will or codicil, must hereafter be made and signed with the same formalities as are above expressed. Yours faithfully, G. F. ABRAHAM.

Great Marlborough Street, Dec. 1837.

Wheatly on the Common Prayer, p. 273, seq. Ed. 1825.