Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

father communicated in his own chamber, and that his sister had an altar at home m; and Ambrose is said to have administered the sacrament in a private house at Romen. The English church is therefore justified in directing the eucharist to be consecrated in private houses, for the benefit of the sick; and she has taken care, in the rubric immediately preceding the office, that the sacrament should be decorously and reverently administered. "Having a "convenient place in the sick man's house, with all things necessary so prepared, that the curate may

66

66

reverently minister, he shall there celebrate the holy "communion." In case "a man, either by reason of

66

extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due "time to the curate, or for lack of company to receive "with him, or by any other just impediment, do not "receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood," the minister is to comfort him in the following manner, which has long been customary in the English church:

The curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the cross for him, and shed his blood for his redemption, earnestly re

Deinde communicetur infirmus, nisi prius communicatus fuerit, et nisi de vomitu, vel alia irreverentia probabiliter timeatur: in quo casu, dicat sacerdos infirmo: Frater in hoc casu sufficit tibi vera fides, et

m

Gregor. Nazianz. Orat.19. de Laude Patris; Orat. 11. de Gorgonia.

n" Per idem tempus cum trans Tiberim apud quemdam

clarissimum invitatus, sacrificium in domo offerret," &c. Vita Ambrosii a Paulino p. iii. Append. tom. ii. Oper. Ambros. edit. Benedict.

membering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore, he doth eat and drink the body and blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth.

bona voluntas; tantum crede, et manducasti o.

o Man. Sarisb. fol.

97.

CHAPTER IX.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

THE office for the burial of the dead, according to the English ritual, commences on the approach of the body towards the church. In primitive times, the body, immediately after death, was washed and arrayed in new garments; and the clergy and people watched the remains until the time of burial came. During this interval psalms were sung, and lessons read ". The body was then carried to the church, with singing of psalms or anthems, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions, from Dionysius Areopagite, Chrysostom, and other sources b. With this custom all the rituals of the eastern and western churches, that I have seen, concure; and, amongst other, the ritual of the English church directs the priest and other clergy to meet the corpse at the entrance of the cemetery, and precede it into the church, or towards the grave, singing or saying certain anthems appropriate to the occasion. Of these anthems, the two former have been long used in the English church in some part of the office for the departed.

a Martene de Antiq. Ecclesiæ Ritibus, lib. iii. c. 12, p. 553, &c. Bingham, Antiquities, book xxiii. c. 3.

b Martene, lib. iii. c. 14.

p. 573, &c. Bingham, ut sup.

c See the various orders for burial of the dead in Martene, lib. iii. c. 15. Goar, Rit. Græc. p. 526, &c.

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die:

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.

Ego sum resurrectio et vita : qui credit in me, etiam si mortuus fuerit, vivit: et omnis qui vivit et credit in me, non morietur in æternum d.

Credo quia Redemptor meus vivit: et in novissimo die de terra surrecturus sum: et in carne mea videbo Deum Salvatorem meum. Quem visurus sum ego ipse et non alius : et oculi mei conspecturi sunte.

When the procession has entered the church, the office proceeds with psalmody and reading of scripture. A similar custom is mentioned by the author called Dionysius, as prevailing in his time in the east f; and we find frequent mention of the same amongst the oriental fathers. Nearly the same order prevails in the patriarchate of Constantinople, where many anthems and psalms are sung, and lessons from the Epistles and Gospels are read. In the western churches it seems that the eucharist was celebrated at this time, in which prayers were made for the happiness of the deceased. This was customary in Africa in the fifth century, according to Augustine; and in Italy in the time of Ambrose i;

d Manuale Sarisb. Vigiliæ Mortuorum, fol. 127.

e Ibid. fol. 106.

f Dionys. Eccl. Hierarch.c.7. g See Goar, Rituale Græc. p. 526, &c.

August. Confess. lib. ix.

C. 12.

i Paulin. Vita Ambrosii: "Il_ lucescente die Dominico, cum corpus illius, peractis sacramentis divinis de ecclesia levaretur, portandum ad Basilicam Ambrosianam," &c.

and we find it recognized in all the western rituals į. But it was not usual in the east, where the liturgy is not performed at funerals even to the present day. The psalms which are appointed by the church of England on the present occasion are highly appropriate. A part of the lesson which follows has been used by the English church for a considerable length of time. It was anciently read in the celebration of the eucharist, which formerly took place in England, as in other western churches, at this time; and although the English church has not continued the custom, but adopted the practice of the church of Constantinople, the importance of this part of scripture has caused it to be used as the proper lesson on the present occasion. In the church of Constantinople they read part of the fourth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, and a gospel from St. John1.

I Cor. xv. 20.

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, &c.

Epistola ad Corinthios. Fratres, Christus resurrexit a mortuis, primitiæ dormientium; quoniam quidem per hominem mors, et per hominem resurrectio mortuorum. Et sicut in Adam omnes moriuntur, ita et in Christo omnes vivificabuntur ; unusquisque autem in suo ordine m.

From the church the procession advances to the sepulchre, where, as the necessary preparations are

j Martene, p. 595, 604, 606,

608, &c. &c.

k Goar, Rit. Græc. p. 525, &c. &c.

1 Ibid. p. 535.

m Man. Sarisb. missa pro defunctis, fol. 136.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »