in the hand. The last, I am sorry to say, is so nearly obliterated, that I cannot decipher it. N.B. The inscription on the chair is in black letter. M. The sentences are partly written in the shape of a hand, a common sentence from the wrist belonging to each of those in the fingers, and so elsewhere: Non homo læteris tibi copia si fluat æris, Hic non semper eris; memor esto quod morieris, 2. (Which is not clear in order or meaning.) Memorare. novissima tua . . . . etiam. æternum. non peccabis. ANTIQUITIES, ETC. THE TWENTY-EIGHT CONSTITUTIONS OF OTHO. XI. No one shall take possession of the church of an absent incumbent until there shall be full proof of the death of him that is absent; nor shall any one intrude upon the benefice of an incumbent who is present; but, in either case, if any one do so intrude he shall be held to the party injured to give a full recompence for the damage arising from such his conduct, and shall also be ipso facto suspended from every office and benefice he may be in possession of. [xI. This constitution was supposed to have been for the benefit principally of Italians, non-resident priests, or such as spent the greater part of their time at Rome. The vast number of priests who held benefices in England, but had their abode in the pope's dominions, and more especially at Rome, contributed much to the benefit of his holiness's purse, as they spent in Italy the incomes which they received from their English benefices; and Otho being himself an Italian, inclined, of course, to favour his own countrymen, not caring for the injury done to England by the encouragement of this spirit of absenteeism, or the very great detriment arising therefrom to the churches, which were thus left destitute of those who ought of right to have served them.] XII. NEVER, at any future time, shall one church be divided into several rectories or vicarages. And such as have been already thus divided, as soon as it can be conveniently effected, shall be restored whole again, save only such as shall have been so divided a very long time since, and these shall be divided over again into more suitable and convenient portions by the diocesan, who shall provide that in each of the divisions, one, having the accustomed cure of souls, shall reside. Furthermore, concerning the residence of rectors at their churches, and the holding a plurality of benefices, we think it more advisable to refer to the constitutions of the Roman pontiffs, than to frame new ones. [xII. There are several causes or reasons in the law for this consolidation, incorporation, annexation, or union of churches; and they are chiefly these five:-1. An unlawful dividing of those churches or ecclesiastical benefices, precedent to their reintegration or intended consolidation, as when such as had been formerly united were illegally divided. 2. For the better hospitality, and that the rector might thereby be the better enabled to relieve the poor. 3. The overnighness of the churches each to the other in point of situation, insomuch that one rector may commodiously discharge the cure of both, by reason of the vicinity of the places. 4. For, or by reason of a want or defect of parishioners, as when one of the churches is deprived of her people by some incursion of an enemy, or by some mortal disease, or sickness, or the like. 5. For, and by reason of the extreme poverty of one of the parishes.— Godolphin, c. 14, s. 3, where are copious particulars on this subject.] XIII. CLERKS, especially those having cure of souls, shall have their clothes and the ornaments of their horses after the form set forth in the general council, so that they use vests of becoming dimensions, and be decently shaved, under pain of having their benefices taken away from them by their bishops, who should first cause those clerks who are about them to follow these observances, in order that they may then the more easily compel others to conform therewith. [xIII. The clergy of former days appear to have been particularly given to the wearing of costly apparel, and, as regarded this, they were scarcely distinguishable from the laity: the principal difference between them was, that the heads of the clergy were shaved, so that the crown was quite bare. This inclination to the pomps and vanities of the world is shewn from the order promulgated in 785, forbidding the clergy to wear the tinctured colours of India, or precious garments; (Spelm. Concil. p. 294,) and Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in his letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, inveighs against the luxuries of dress, and declares those garments that are adorned with very broad studs and images of worms announce the coming of Antichrist.-(Spelm. Concil. 241.) In the same spirit, at the council of Cloveshoe, the nuns were exhorted to pass their time rather in reading books and singing hymns than in wearing and working garments of empty pride in diversified colours. -Spelm. Concil. 256.) (The principal articles of the ancient episcopal dress were the alb, the dalmatica, the stole, the chasuble, and the pallium of archbishops. The crosier was carried by archbishops, the pastoral staff by bishops.) Sumptuous dresses, however, still obtained in spite of prohibitions, and, but a short time after the making of this constitution, the richly embroidered garments of the clergy occasioned Innocent IV. to exclaim-" Oh England, thou garden of delights, thou art truly an inexhaustible fountain of riches! From thy abundance much may be exacted!" Some of these sacerdotal habits were nearly covered with gold and precious stones, and others were exquisitely embroidered with figures of animals and flowers.-See History of British Costume, p. 101. The tonsure of clerks signified sometimes not only the shaved spot on the crown of the head, but the whole ecclesiastical cut, or having the hair clipt in such a fashion that the ears might be seen, but not the forehead.-See Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, tit. “ Privileges and Restraints of the Clergy;" also the 74th Canon, and Lindwood, p. 122. On the subject of the apparel of the clergy generally, see Canon 74.] XIV. ALL such clerks as have contracted matrimony, either privately or publicly, are to be wholly removed from their churches and ecclesiastical preferments, and the property which they may have derived from their churches, subsequent to such their marriages, shall be reapplied to those churches; neither shall their sons be admitted to any benefice or to holy orders, unless they have a special dispensation for that purpose from the pope. [XIV. By the 31 H. VIII. cap. 14, a priest keeping company with a wife, to the evil example of other persons, shall be guilty of felony, as shall also the woman. And, by the same act, his keeping a concubine was to be punished by forfeiture of his goods and spiritual promotions, and imprisonment during the king's pleasure; and for the second offence he should be guilty of felony, and the women shall have the same punishment. By the 32 H. VIII., c. 10, the penalties of the aforesaid act are mitigated, and for both offences alike the priest shall only forfeit for the first offence all his goods and spiritual promotions except one; for the second offence, all his goods, and also during his life all the profits of his lands and of his spiritual promotions; and for the third offence, all his goods, and also during his life all the profits of his lands and of his spiritual promotions, and be imprisoned during life. And the woman offending, if she be unmarried, shall, for the first offence, forfeit all her goods; for the second offence, all her goods and half the issue of her lands during life; for the third offence, all her goods and the issue of all her lands during life, and be imprisoned during life ;—if she be married, she shall, for the first offence, be imprisoned for all the term of her life, at the king's will and pleasure. After various other statutes having been made on this subject, it was ordered at last by 2 and 3 Ed. VI.,' c. 21, (which was repealed in the reign of Mary, and revived by James I. c. 25,) that all laws theretofore made which prohibited or forbade ecclesiastical persons to marry were thenceforth utterly void and of none effect. See also 5 and 6 Ed. VI., c. 12, (which was repealed and revived in like manner as the 2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. 21,) to the same effect; likewise the 32nd Article.] XV. CLERKS, especially those admitted into holy orders, who, either in their own houses or in those belonging to other persons, publicly keep concubines, shall dismiss them entirely within a month, nor shall they, at any future time, take the same back again or receive others; for if they do, they shall be suspended from their office and benefices until such time as proper satisfaction be given by them, and until that time they shall not meddle in such their ecclesiastical benefices, under pain of being deprived thereof. And hereof the archbishops and bishops shall cause diligent inquiry to be made, and shall take care also that this, our statute, be observed. [xv. There is a constitution of Langton to the same effect as this, except that it orders that such concubines as after public admonition do not depart, shall be expelled from the churches which they shall so presume to defame, and shall not be admitted to the sacraments; and if they still persist, they shall be excommunicated and the secular arm be invoked against them; and, also, that the clerks, after canonical admonition, shall be deprived of their office and benefice. The words "after canonical admonition" seem to make Langton's constitution rather more lenient in its terms than Otho's.-See Lind. 125.] XVI. SONS are not, under any pretence whatever, in future to be admitted to the benefices which their fathers held; and those who have been already admitted thereto, we, by this present statute, decree to be deprived thereof. [xvi. By a decretal epistle of Pope Alexander the Third, it is enjoined, that “if any sons of presbyters do hold churches, in which their fathers did serve as parsons or vicars, without any other intervening, they shall be removed, whether they were born in the priesthood or not," And the 14th of these (Otho's) constitutions contains orders touching the subject of the sons of clergymen born in the priesthood holding any ecclesiastical benefices, or even being admitted to orders at all. See further, in Lindwood, p. 45, a constitution of Peccham, strengthening this prohibition against the possessing of ecclesiastical benefices by hereditary right, unless a special dispensation from the pope had been first obtained. Vide also Burn, tit. “Benefice."] XVII. WHOSOEVER shall protect, defend, or conceal in his house, or on his premises, those whom he knows to be or who are robbers, and, after being thrice publicly and generally warned thereof by his ordinary, shall not eject them, shall incur the sentence of excommunication. [XVII. It appears probable that, at the time of the making of this constitution, there were many who with a view to their own gain, by a participation in the plunder, were willing to shelter robbers in their houses or on their premises; and others perhaps, from fear, might have been very unwilling to take any very active measures for the expulsion of robbers who had taken refuge or hidden themselves on their grounds. Against such as these the threat in this constitution appears to have been levelled, and a most effective means it probably was of suppressing their nefarious conduct, for excommunication in those days was almost as severe a punishment as death itself, cutting people off as it did from the society of the faithful, and indeed from almost all intercourse with even their relatives.] XVIII. MONKS, as soon as they, after their year of probation, shall have professed themselves as such, shall abstain from the eating of meat, unless in the event of sickness, when they are in the hospital. And none shall be admitted as an abbot or prior who hath not professed the order; and their profession shall be after the appointed time of probation, whether in the order of Saint Benedict, or in those of the regular and monasterial monks. Concerning other matters relating to monks we will give our directions to their respective chapters. [XVIII. There were lord-abbots and lord-priors, who had exempt jurisdiction, and were lords of parliament. It is supposed that the Abbot of Saint Austin's, in Canterbury, was the ancientest of any in this kingdom, founded by King Ethelbert, anno 602; and next to him in antiquity was the Abbot of Westminster, founded by Seabert, King of the West Saxons, anno 604. Some difference there is among authors touching their number in this realm, whereof some reckon but twenty-six. Sir Ed. Coke says there were twenty-seven abbots and two priors. (Co. on Litt., fo. 29.) See Godolphin, c. 29, s. 5, where is most copious information relative to abbots, abbeys, &c.] XIX. ARCHDEACONS shall diligently and faithfully visit their churches, without subjecting them to any improper exactions, receiving nothing from the correction or punishment of them, nor avariciously involving any in unjust sentences in order to extort money from them. And we do decree that such as shall presume to act otherwise, besides undergoing canonical punishment, shall be compelled to restore twice as much as they exacted, to be applied to pious uses, at the will of the bishop. Moreover, archdeacons shall be required frequently to attend their chapters, and thereat, amongst other things, to instruct the priests in the way of holy living, and to see that they understand well the form of baptism, and of the eucharist. [xIx. Concerning the archdeacon's visitation and how it ought to take place at least once in every three years, see Lindwood, 49; and for the duties of archdeacons in their visitations, see also Lind. 50, 53, and 224; also the 86th Canon. See likewise, respecting the subject of visitations, the 187th Canon, and Lind. 277, and 109; Canon 113, 116, 119, and Lind. 109, 223; Canon 115, 117, 118, 121; Lind. 221, 219, 220; Godolphin, Introduction, p. 19, and Athon, p. 114, 52, 54, and 53.] XX. PRELATES, archdeacons, and deans, or their officials, shall never, on account of the profit that may arise to them out of a suit or contention, dissuade any from concord and peace; but rather, when the parties themselves shall desire it, facilitate some arrangement by which the suit may be made to cease, provided it be such as may lawfully be stopped, or the matter in question be of such a nature as to allow of a composition between the parties being lawfully made. [xx. In the ancient days of popery in this realm, when probably many of the ecclesiastical judges were nominated by his holiness, it is very probable that, owing perhaps in many instances to their being Italians, and having been educated in so crafty a school as the Romish, they were keenly alive to their own interests, and so, by gratifying their avaricious propensities, a general dissatisfaction against their proceedings might have been caused, and this probably led to the making of the constitution now before us.] (To be continued.) ANCIENT USAGES AND CUSTOMS IN NORTH WALES. (From a MS. book of a Bp. of St. Asaph, written about a century ago.) In the church there is a general spitting; they usually spit at the name of the devil or any of his synonyma, and smite their breasts at the name of Judas. In their ordinary conversation that name gives them no salivation, but is too familiar in their mouths. If there be a fynnon vair (well of our lady or other saint in the parish) the water for baptism in the font is fetched thence. Old women are very fond of washing their eyes with the water after baptism. At the delivery of the bread and wine at the sacrament, several, before they receive the bread or cup, though held out to them, will flourish a little with their thumb to their faces, something like making the figure of a cross. They (the women mostly), say their prayers on their first coming to church. The Sunday after a marriage they come to church with their friends and relations with splendid appearance, disturbing the church, and striving who shall place the groom and bride in the most honourable seat. After church is over, with the fidlers before them, they run to all the ale-houses in the town. When they bless another, they are very apt to add to the blessing of God, the blessing of White Mary. The night before a dead body is to be interred, the friends and neighbours of the deceased resort to the house the corpse is in, each bringing with him some small present of meat, bread, or drink, (if the family be something poor,) but more especially candles, whatever the family is; and this night is called wýl nos, whereby the country people seem to mean a watching night. Their going to such a house they say is i wilio corph, i. e., to watch the corpse; but wŷlo signifies to |