and epistler agreeably, according to the advertisements published anno 7 Eliz." The "advertisements" referred to are those of 1564, published by the Queen's authority, with assent and consent of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and other bishops, members of the Ecclesiastical Commission. They may be seen in Sparrow's Collection, and the part referred to is as follows:-"In the ministration of the Holy Communion in cathedral and collegiate churches, the principal minister shall wear a cope, with gospeller and epistler agreeably."

The twenty-fifth canon directs that in the time of Divine Service and Prayers, in all cathedral and collegiate churches, when there is no Communion, it shall be sufficient to wear surplices; saving that all Deans, Masters, and Heads of Collegiate Churches, Canons, and Prebendaries, being graduates, shall daily, at the times both of prayer and preaching, wear with their surplices such hoods as are agreeable to their degrees.

The fifty-eighth canon directs that "every minister saying the Public Prayers, or ministering the Sacraments, or other rites of the church, shall wear a decent seemly surplice with sleeves;" that "such ministers as are graduates shall wear upon their surplices, at such times, such hoods as by the orders of the Universities are agreeable to their degrees;" and "that it shall be lawful for such ministers as are not graduates to wear upon their surplice, instead of hoods, some decent tippet of black, so it be not silk."

The directions of the canon and of King Edward's rubric, in regard to cathedral and collegiate churches, are much the same, excepting that the canon distinctly recognises the established custom in such places of preaching in surplice, which the rubric only implies. The only material point of difference is in a matter now totally obsolete: I allude to the use of copes at the administration of the Holy Communion, which the canon permits the principal minister, gospeller, and epistler, whilst the rubric restricts it to the bishop. Although the cope is now out of use, I have been credibly informed that it was used in Brasennose college during the last century, and that copes still exist, although not used, in Durham cathedral.* In regard to parish churches, both the rubric and canon allow the clergyman to lay aside his surplice in preaching, always supposing him to wear a gown, according to the seventy-fourth canon; and, as it should seem, the rubric does not require the use of the surplice in performing the rite of matrimony. Moreover the rubric directs every graduate to wear his hood whilst preaching, whilst the seventy-fourth canon requires all persons above the degree of B.A., and holding preferment, to wear their hoods at all times. Of course no one can be expected to comply in this respect with the canon, since it has become, from change of circumstances, impracticable; but surely every one may obey the command of the rubric to wear the hood in the pulpit, as most persons, I imagine,

They were worn till Bishop Warburton's time, according to the tradition at Durham. It is said that on the first Sunday when he officiated as prebendary, he refused to wear that popish dress.

respect the requirement of the fifty-eighth canon, as to wearing it in the desk and at the altar. This is the more necessary when persons do not wear the graduate's gown, but avail themselves of the permission of the seventy-fourth canon to use what is called the preaching gown, although it no longer answers to the description in the canon of a gown close at the wrist.

It may be thought that these matters of mere form and outward attire are in such times as these little better than frivolous; but if we should have a revision of the canons and rubrics, these observations may possibly lead those concerned in such a work to consider the difficulty under which a person lies of knowing what is intended by rubrical directions in cases like the present. It is, indeed, only in such comparatively unimportant matters as this that our Prayer Book is capable of any certain improvement. J. B. L.

QUAKERS' AND ANABAPTISTS' BURIALS.

SIR,-From the many interesting details brought forward, and the acquaintance with antiquarian and other literature manifested in the pages of your miscellany, I am induced to ask from yourself or one of your correspondents, whether any facts in the history of our church will serve to throw light upon the following circumstance :— In searching through my Parish Register this afternoon, I was struck with the following entry, amongst the burials of the year 1716:— "Nathaniel Purver, buried by the Quakers."-Are there any historical documents which would explain whether the entry thus made was of a burial by Quakers in the church-yard, or is it an entry of a funeral in unconsecrated ground?-I may observe that there is at present no Quakers' meeting in the parish, nor have I ever heard any tradition of there having been such.

In the year 1711, I find the following: "

Whaller, son

of an Abps., was buried unduly."-This person having no Christian name determines, I conceive, that the first contraction is used for "Anabaptist," but I am at a loss how to explain the concluding abbreviated word.

In 1704 the first "burying" registered is this:-"Mrs. Crawford was interred fanaticorum more." Two more occurred in this year, entered in a similar manner; and in the preceding year, 1703, is another.

If, Sir, any of your learned readers can throw light upon this period of our Ecclesiastical History, so as to explain who the "fanatici" here referred to were, and what their peculiar "mos" sepeliendi, I shall feel obliged.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your's, &c.

Haddenham, Isle of Ely.

T. W. M.

VOL. VI.-July, 1834.

READINGS IN POETRY.

SIR,-Allow me to offer through your pages (as you wisely do not hold yourself answerable for all the opinions of your correspondents) a hint to the S. P. C. K. Committee of General Literature and Education. If so distinguished a Society as that for Promoting Christian Knowledge feels it a duty, in the present times, to run the risks and incur the responsibilities attached to that branch of its operations, surely there should be strict vigilance exercised-especially in books intended as class books for the young-to keep clear of blemishes positively offensive! And this obligation still increases, in proportion as any book, from the nature of its contents or otherwise, is likely to become popular, which is, perhaps, particularly the case with any tolerable selection of READINGS IN POETRY.

Now, in the introduction to a little volume bearing this title, which fell into my way the other day, in course of a description given of the various kinds of English poetry, occurs this passage- "Of the humorous Epigram the following may serve as an example:

Sure Surgeon Pythias, Sexton Damon,

Carry a profitable game on!

The sexton, from the plundered grave,
With lint supplies his brother knave;

The surgeon, not to be outdone,

Murders his patients, every one

Plies them with potions, to destroy meant,

And gives the sexton full employment."

It would be tedious, and might look like an offence against proportion, gravely and separately to draw out and discuss the very many objectionable points concentrated in these poor jingling lines, which, by the way, for one thing, are no Epigram at all, having neither wit nor point. But my object is simply to give a hint for the substitution of some better example under this head in the third edition of the book; I think the copy which I saw described itself as being of the second. It would be wasting your patience and that of your readers to pursue so small a subject further.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant, PHILO-CHIR.

LETTERS ON THE CHURCH OF THE FATHERS.

NO. VII.

A MODERN poet has the following reflection :

"Oh! who shall dare, in this frail scene,
On holiest, happiest thoughts to lean-
On friendship, kindred, or on love?

Since not apostles' hands can clasp
Each other in so firm a grasp,

But they shall change and variance prove."

It often happens that men of very dissimilar talents and tastes are attracted together by their very dissimilitude. They live in intimacy

for a time, perhaps a long time, till their circumstances alter, or some sudden event comes to try them. Then the peculiarities of their respective minds are brought out into action; and quarrels ensue, which end in coolness or separation. This, indeed, is not exemplified in the instance of the two blessed apostles, whose "sharp contention" is related in the book of Acts; for they had been united in spirit once for all by a divine leading; yet their strife reminds us of what takes place in life continually. And it so far resembles the every-day quarrels of friends, in that it arose from difference of temper and character in those exalted servants of God. The fiery heart of the apostle of the Gentiles endured not the presence of one who had almost lapsed from the faith; the compassionate spirit of Barnabas seems to have felt more for his relative than for the honour of his sacred cause. Such are the two main characters which are found in the church-high energy and amiableness of temper; far from incompatible of course, yet only partially combined in this imperfect state, and often altogether parted from each other.

This contrast of character, leading, first, to intimacy, then to disunion, is interestingly displayed, though painfully, in the history of Basil and Gregory, Gregory the affectionate, the tender-hearted, the sensitive companion-the accomplished, the eloquent preacher; and Basil, the man of hard deeds, the high-minded ruler of Christ's flock, the ascetic champion of the truth. Thus they differed; but both were devoted champions of the orthodox creed-both were skilled in argument, and successful in their use of it,-both were in highest place in the church-the one Exarch of Cæsarea, the other Patriarch of Constantinople. I will now attempt to sketch the history of their intimacy.

Basil and Gregory had known each other in Cappadocia, which was their native country; but their friendship commenced at Athens, whither they repaired for the purposes of education. This was about A.D. 351, when each of them was twenty-two years of age. Gregory came to the seat of learning shortly before Basil, and thus was able to be his host and guide on his arrival, and to do him those minute, but not unimportant, services which a freshman at the university required in those days as well as these. Fame had reported Basil's manliness and energy of character before he came. He soon found himself at the head of a select circle of young men of the same principles as himself; but Gregory was his only friend, and shared with him the reputation of talent and attainments. They remained at Athens four or five years; and, at the end of the time, made the acquaintance of Julian, since of evil name in history as the apostate. Gregory thus describes in after life his early intimacy with Basil:

Athens and letters followed on my stage;
Others may tell how I encountered them ;-
How in the fear of God, and foremost found
Of those who knew a more than mortal lore ;—
And how, amid the venture and the rush
Of maddened youth with youth at variance,
My tranquil course ran like some fabled spring,
Which bubbles fresh beneath the turbid brine;
Not drawn athwart by those who lure to ill,
But drawing dear ones to the better part.

There, too, I gained a further gift of good,
Loving and loved by one of wisdom rare,
Whose life and learning brook no rivalry.
Ask ye his name?-certes, 'twas Basil, since
His age's prize, and then my fellow dear
In home, and studious search, and highest thought,
May I not boast how in our day we moved
A truest pair, not without name in Greece;
Had all things common, and one only soul
In lodgment of a double outward frame?
For God above, and yearning after truth,
Wrought in our souls, and knit the twain in one,
Until we hazarded such fearless trust,
As e'en to empty forth our deepest hearts,
And mix and temper them, as choicest streams,
Into one nature, by the craft of love."

The friends had determined to retire together from the world after the manner of those times, not indeed so as to withdraw from public life, but to secure seasons for study and meditation. Gregory speaks of two monastic disciplines, that of the avyes, or solitary; and of the piyades, or secular; one of which, he says, profits a man's self, the other his neighbour. Midway between these lay the Cœnobite, what we commonly call the monastic; removed from the world, yet acting in a certain select circle. Such was the rule which the friends determined to adopt, withdrawing from mixed society in order to be of the greater service to it.

The following is the passage in which Gregory describes the life which was the common choice of both of them :

Fierce was the whirlwind of my storm-tossed mind,
Searching, mid holiest ways, a holier still.

Long had I nerved me, in the depths to sink

Thoughts of the flesh, and then more strenuously.

Yet, while I gazed upon diviner aims,

I could not skill to single out the best:

For, as is aye the wont of things of earth,

Each had its evil, each its nobleness.

I was the pilgrim of a toilsome course,

Who had o'erpast the waves, and now looked round,

With anxious eye, to track his road by land.

Then did the awful Tishbite's image rise,

His highest Carmel, and his food uncouth,

And solitude, his one possession;

And Jonadab, rich in his naked life.
But soon I felt the love of holy books,

The spirit beaming bright in learned lore,

Which deserts could not bear, nor silence tell.
Long was the inward strife, till ended thus:-

I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,

They vantaged other men, but wronged the while

Their own calm hearts, which straight by storms were tried.

They who retired held an uprighter port,

And raised their eyes with quiet strength towards God;

Yet served self only on moroser plan.

And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,

To meditate with the free solitary,

Yet to live secular, and serve mankind.

Not many years passed after their leaving Athens, when Basil proceeded to put his resolution into practice, and wrote to Gregory, first, to remind him of his promise, and, next, when the latter hesitated, to expostulate with him. Gregory's answer was as follows:—

I have broken my word, I own it; having ever protested, ever since our hearts were knit together at Athens, that I would live and seek the truth in your company. Yet I do so against