the desks and books, and stamping upon the floor, which, as already said, was intended to represent the earthquake, and the splitting of rocks at the crucifixion.*

Holy Thursday, Shere Thursday, or Maunday Thursday— is the Thursday before Easter. Many etymologies have been given for the word, Shere. In an old homily, quoted in the Weekly Packet of Advice from Rome, we read that the day was so called, "for that in old fathers' days the people would that day shere theyr hedes and clypp they berdes, and pool theyr heedes, and so make them honest ayent Easter Day."+ In Junius the word sheer is explained to signify purus, and a writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," who signs himself T. Row, has concluded that it has a reference "to the washing of the disciples' feet, and be tantamount to clean." But to sheere is also the Anglo-Saxon word for "to divide," and it is even more likely to allude to the breaking of the bread by Christ, and the division of it amongst his disciples. There is the greater reason for this supposition in that the custom, still retained among us, of a royal dole of alms on that day is clearly a commemoration of the last supper. The only difference is, that in the early ages kings themselves washed the feet of the poor, and that when the first part of the custom became obsolete, they yet condescended to distribute the alms. James the Second was the last who performed this duty, and since his time the doles have been portioned out by an almoner, the number of mendicants being regulated by the years of the monarch, so that the poor at least have good reason to pray that the king may live long.§

* For a full account of this office, see Alban Butler's "Moveable Feasts."

† As cited by Brand, vol. i. p. 83.

Vol. xlix. p. 349, July, 1779.

§ A lively account of this ceremony will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1731, vol. i. p. 172. And in Le Guide de

There has been scarcely less dispute as to the meaning of the word, Maunday or Maundy. Wheatley, who calls it also Mandate Thursday, or Dies Mandati, tells us that it was so "called from the commandment (Mandatum) which our Saviour gave his Apostles to commemorate the sacrament of his supper, which he this day instituted after the celebration of the Passover; and which was for that reason generally received in the evening of the day; or as others think from that new commandment, which he gave them to love one another, after he had washed their feet in token of the love he bore to them, as is recorded in the second lesson at morning prayer."* Others again will have nothing to do with mandate, or mandatum, but derive it from the French maundier, " to beg," while some maintain with Junius‡ and Spelman, that the word is derived from the mande, or basket, from which the alms were distributed. But notwithstanding such high authorities, I am inclined to believe with those, who derive the word from mandatum; for in enquiring into its etymology, we must look at the custom, in which it is supposed to have

Londres, by R. Colsoni, 8vo. London, 1693, p. 33, we are told "Mais le roy, G. iii. (Guillaume III.) a laissè l'intendance de cette ceremonie a son grand aumonier, ou un eveque du royaume." Queen Elizabeth used actually to wash the people's feet herself, being we may presume a much better Christian than her successors; but she took care to have the business made as little disagreeable as possible, by having the pauper's feet cleansed and purified beforehand by the yeomen of the laundry with warm water and sweet herbs. Humility can, when it chooses, be so very proud!

* "Wheatley's Rational Illustration, p. 227. Fol. Lond. 1720. Minshew maintains the same opinion; he says, it is so called, "quasi dies mandati propter magnum illud mandatum et præceptum quod discipulis suis dedit servator noster de observatione cænæ, quam instituerat; dixit enim, hoc facite in mei memoriam,” Minshew's Ductor in Linguas, sub voce, Day.

+ Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlix. p. 54.

Vide Junii Etymologicon, sub voce.

In olden

originated, not as the custom is, but as it was. times, when kings used to wash the feet of beggars, the words uttered by Christ and his apostles were sung for an antiphon," mandatum novum do vobis," &c ;* a new commandment I give unto you-and what is more probable than that the whole ceremony should take its name from so prominent a feature? The absurdity of deriving the name of the day from a word expressive of a small basket seems to have struck some of those, who have refused credence to the more obvious etymology; and they have shifted their position, maintaining that maunde, in process of time, came to signify an alms, and hence the day had its name. Unquestionably, such a meaning was subsequently attached to the word; but they have not been able to show that this was an original signification, and far less have they proved that the term Maundy was a name given to the custom when first established, which would be the case if their derivation were the true one. The earliest instance of the use of the word in this sense, that I am aware of, is in Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 4to. b. 1. p. 82 (quoted by Brand,) where the kinsman of a merchant who is making his will, enquires jestingly of the lawyer, "what saith my uncle now? doth he now make his Maundies?" but this in my mind is conclusive of the point in dispute the very contrary way, the question of the heir expectant evidently being no more than a mere facetious allusion, as if the dying man were doling out the alms customary on a Maundy Thursday; nothing I think can be plainer than that it never was a general term for alms, though sometimes we find it used in that sense, but still allusively to an alms-giver. Indeed charity may be said to be the peculiar feature of the day, no doubt because it was now that Christ more particularly enjoined the prac

St. John, chap. xiii. v. 34.

tice of it to his disciples. Hence it was the custom in all Roman Catholic countries for the people, drest in their best, to visit several churches at this season saying a short prayer in each, and giving alms to the numerous beggars that were in waiting. This was called performing the stations.*

Good Friday. The Friday before Easter Sunday. It was also called by the Saxons Long Friday,† perhaps from the long fasts and offices used by them at that time, for there appears no other reason. The epithet of good it is said to have obtained because the good work of man's redemption was then consummated, and on account of the benefits thence derived to us.

The hot cross-buns, that are in such common use amongst all classes, have by some been derived from the eulogia, or consecrated loaves of the Greek Church, though one would suppose that this was the very last quarter to which the Latins would have gone for any custom. The buns, marked with the cross, were, I should imagine, but a sort of lay-sacrament, and eaten as much in commemoration of our Saviour as the consecrated bread itself, being manifestly no more than another form of the bread that was at one time given in alms to people at the churches. Bishop Bonner tells us "that the gevyng of holy bread is to put us in remembrance of unitie, and that all Christen people be one mysticall body of Christ, like as the bread is made of many grains and yet but one loafe, and that the sayd holy bread is to put us also in remembrance of the housell‡ and the receyvyng

* See Gentleman's Magazine, vol. li. p. 500.

Wheatley's Rational Illustration, p. 229.

Housel was the old English name for the sacrament from the time of St. Augustine till the Reformation, when the word sacrament was substituted for it. But sacrament does not altogether supply the place of the term thus rejected; it denotes a sacred sign, whereas housel

of the moste blessed body and blood of our Saviour Jesu Christ.'*

As to the word, bun, it is likely enough to be a corruption of boun,† the original name for sacrificial cakes, and which the Greeks transmuted into ßovs, by changing the final nu into sigma. The proper word, however, ßovv, reappeared in the accusative case, according to the usual mode of Greek inflection.

Another custom of this day, but which was abolished by the convocation under Henry the Eighth, in 1536, is the creeping to the cross upon the knees and kissing it. Bishop Bonner in the work just quoted, says, "that the creepyng to the crosse on good fryday signifieth an humblyng of ourselves to Christe before the Crosse, and that the kissyng of it signifieth a memory of our redemption."‡

Even kings and queens were not exempted from this idle ceremony, though they contrived to take the humility as much as possible out of it. In the Earl of Northumberland's Household Book § we read, amongst a multitude of items-" Item, My Lorde useth and accustometh yerely when his Lordschip is at home to caus to be delyveride for the Offerings of my Lordi's Sone and Heire the Lord Percy upon the sayd Good Friday when he crepith the Crosse ij d." In a note upon this, the editor quotes the following curious passage from an ancient Book of the Ceremonial of the Kings of England

implies a victim of sacrifice, and we find Bede employing the word victim to denote the sacrifice of the Mass. Consult upon this subject Dr. Lingard's admirable "History and Antiquities of the AngloSaxon Church," vol. i. p. 15.

* Bonner's Injunctions, &c. Sig. A. 1. Qto. 1555. bl. 1. + Vide Bryant's Mythology.

Bonner's Injunctions. Sig A. ij.

§ Page 334. 8vo. London, 1770.